Finally! K, here we go

I lie on my bed the two thoughts lingering in my mind.

Was it really a date?

Did I just sneak out to go on a date?!

No, that's not right. I can't sneak out if I wasn't at home right?

My mom is gonna kill me for this!!!

Especially if she finds out who I was with...

Nope! Not even gonna think about it.

I quickly sat up and hopped out of bed and headed to my light brown dresser on the wall across from my bed. I fumbled through the drawers until I dragged out a pair of magenta pajama pants and a similarly colored button up pajama shirt. Out of a different drawer, I grabbed a white towel and wash cloth and carried them into my bathroom which was connected to my bedroom.

The bathroom walls were an extremely light shade of gray while the tub, sink, counter-top, cabinets and toilet were a sparkling pearly white. The mirror hung just above the sink, shining. I set my towel and wash cloth on the counter and look at myself in the mirror. That's when I noticed the blue short sleeved jacket I'd forgotten I was wearing.

Oops. I think as I take the jacket off. I never gave this back to Ash. I'll have to give it to him at school.

I set the jacket on the white counter, feeling my face get warm. But it was a good warm. The kind of warm that fills you when happy memories come to mind. When you remember the good ole days.

Geez, I sound like someone's grandma, don't I?

~~~

I shuddered as a cold night breeze hit me, nearly blowing my red baseball cap off my head. I reached up to my head and pressed the cap down with my right hand and holding the brim of it with my left. After the air settled I brought my hands down to rub my freezing arms. I trudged down the side walk of the Lumiose City streets. The occasional car would ride by, illuminating my surroundings in the dark city, while blinding me for a brief moment. The smells of baking pasteries had been replaced with car exhaust, and the repulsive scent of cigarette smoke.

I'd never understand how people enjoyed destroying their body by blowing puffs of disgusting crap. Never. One of my brothers did it for a while. Honestly they might still be doing it. I haven't got any idea. The four of us don't really keep in touch very much. Yes, there are four of us. Apparently, my mom had to raise us, after I was born, on her own. When me and the youngest of the family, my twin, were born, our dad left the family for good. From what I was told, my parents had a very unstable relationship beforehand though, and would tend to spend a lot of time apart. I think that affected each of us a lot. I think it made my brothers less trusting and more quiet. Strangely enough, I was almost always pretty chatty, energetic, and trusting as a kid while my brothers were all shy, or anti social. I don't know why I was the only one like this. Maybe because I let myself be oblivious to the problems in our lives. Maybe I wanted to seem happy so I could make the rest of my family happier. Maybe I thought acting like that would help me move past those things.

Maybe I just couldn't accept what happened.

Lost in thought, I wandered aimlessly down random side walks. Thoughts floated through my head and disappeared just as quickly as they'd appear. I turned into an alley and leaned against the wall. I slid down it till I was sitting on the cold cement ground. I closed my eyes and took a moment to breath.

Well, I survived my first day. Mom would be proud.

Eyes still closed, I layed down on the ground with a small smile on my face.

Only a gazillion more days to go.

When I woke up the next morning everything was fairly normal. I grabbed my backpack (which I hadn't even bothered to take off before sleeping) and made my way down the winding city streets again. It was slightly dark out still but you could just make out the sun peeking out from behind the buildings. I make my way to the Pokemon center to visit my buddy and hopefully get some breakfast.

However, when I arrived, Nurse Joy informed me that Pikachu was n in a treatment session and could not have visitors.

Disappointed by the news, I thanked Nurse Joy and made my way towards where food was being served to Pokemon Center guests.

I placed my order for a Tomato Soup with noodles a tiredly loped over to a vacant table. I sat in my seat and rested my head on the table. I didn't care who might have been looking at me right then. I didn't care what anyone thought. I was tired, hungry, lonely, and, despite having just woken up, I already wanted the day to be over. I sighed and turned my gaze up towards the clock on the wall opposite to me. I watched the red second hand slowly tick away and yawned.

Eventually a man wearing kaki pants and a white polo walked up with my food. His shirt had a pink pokeball logo. He set the bowl on the table and looked at me with an eyebrow raised. Nevertheless he set my food on the table and left me alone. I sat upright and watched as he left not sure if I was actually happy he left me alone.

Breakfast was uneventful; I had enough money to pay for the meal, so I paid my bill and briskly left for school. But before leaving I made a quick call to Professor Oak in hopes to exchange Infernape for one of my other Pokemon.

I find it foolish not to have at least one with me.

That, and it's nice to know you have a friend nearby.

I stuffed my hands in the pockets of my my pants. I let out a quiet breath and watched as the cold air by my mouth curled and rose into the air like smoke rising out of a chimney. It was still fairly early. The sky was just starting to look brighter. Wispy, thin, white clouds were dotted about the sky. It was nice. Not too dismal.

Arriving at the school, I look around the campus. Kids are scattered aboit in their own little groups on the open, cemented grounds. Some sat on the stone steps leading up to the school entrance. It was fairly quiet though, as far as I could tell.

I quickly saw there wasn't anyone I knew on campus at that moment. Luckily, that included Paul.

"Heya Ash!"

I feel a tap on my shoulder and smile at who has greeted me. "Morning, Dawn."

Dawn smiled brightly. "Anyone else from the group here yet?"

"Don't think so," I say with a nonchalant shrug.

"Alright then. So what are you doing here so early? The Ash I know is never early unless battling is involved," she noted, chuckling.

I simply rolled my eyes in response as a smile played on my lips. Dawn grabbed my wrist and dragged me over to the stairs which led to the school entrance. She plopped down on the third step from the groundand leaned back. She looked up into the sky with a small smile. I could see a spark in her eyes. It always meant she had one great idea or a million daydreams rushing through her mind as quick as the wind.

I lean against the stair railing that divides the staircase in two. "Whatcha thinking about?"

"Nothing in particular."

We sat in silence for a bit but eventually a question began tugging at my curiosity.

"Are you still a coordinator?" I ask.

Dawn nodded, her once cheerful smile becoming wistful as memories of past contests came to her mind. "It's been really fun. Piplup and the others are enjoying it too!" she replied, referring to her blue penguin pokemon and the rest of her partners.

"Competing this year?"

"Well actually, Kalos doesn't have contests. They have showcases."

"Oh." Though I had been to Kalos previously, I hadn't looked much into Pokemon Contests and Showcases and all that. It wasn't really my thing. Not that had the time for them either baxk then.

"I've thought about participating this year though" Dawn continued. "I ended up finding out when the competitions were basically over. Plus, I'm in school right now. Kinda hard to travel all over the region and keep up with your studies."

"I think you could manage it."

"Well I-"

"HEY GUYS!"

Dawn and I both look away from each other and turn to see a blond haired lunatic waving wildly at us. What was his name? Oh yeah. Barry.

"Hi Barry!" Dawn said, cheerily as ever.

I simply nodded at him. He stared back in response. I could practically feel Dawn's eyes shifting from me to him and from him to me.

"Uuuuh, did somthing happen?" Dawn asked warily.

"Nothing really," I say, observing Barry's now rigid stance.

Dawn narrowed her eyes at me, feeling I was hiding something.

"Barry and I have the same battle class," I explained.

At first Dawn simply raised an eyebrow in confusion. But soon her eyes widened in realization.

"Oh," she replied.

Before any more questions could be asked, Dawn was waving to someone else. I turned to see May and Misty walking in together waving back. Clemont wasn't to far behind. I saw him glare daggers at me before smiling at Dawn and Barry.

Pretty soon almost the entire rest of the group was there, engaging in idle chit chat. I tried my best to stay on the outside of the circle but remained close to Dawn and Gary. Apart from them and Serena, I didn't feel comfortable around anyone else.

In that moment, I felt a light tap on my shoulder I whirled around to see Serena smiling at me. Speak of the Darkrai

"Hi," she said quietly.

I felt a smile spread across my face. "Hey."

We had a moment of silence before Serena abruptly said, "Well, see ya!"

"Wait where are you going?" I asked.

"Just to the library. Why? Wanna come with me?"

This place has its own library? I quickly shook off the question as I shrug and said sure.

Serena turned to walk up the school steps, flipping her honey blonde locks in the process. She quickly flung open the closed entrance doors and I followed behind her. She griped the straps of her girly, pink backpack. A cute Fenniken plushie keychain hung from its zipper.

I looked around as we continued down the hallway. There weren't many other students besides us in the halls. Though the few that were scattered about the halls would go silent as we passed by. They would stop and stare (sometimes glare) at us. Well, probably not us but me.

Serena didn't seem to notice at first but the longer we walked the more vigilant she became.

"You sure have made some kind of name for yourself here," she noted.

A sigh escaped my lips. "Yeah, I guess."

"Don't like the attention?" she asked, surprisingly without a teasing tone.

"Not especially, no."

"I see."

By this point I had started walking beside Serena to make it easier to talk. I noticed the clear glass doors of what one would assume was the library getting closer.

"At least your popular," Serena said, rather gravely in fact.

"Not all popularity is good," I muttered, but I knew she heard. I knew I wasn't loved. I was feared, hated, and avoided. I was becoming an outcast. I was popular for being the one to avoid.

Before either of us could continue the conversation we came to the library doors. Serena swung open the doors and I enter after her. The librarian was nowhere to be seen so Serena took the books she wanted to return out of her back pack and placed them on mostly empty desk. Right after she headed into the sea of shelves. I followed after her, staying close since I knew nothing about this place.

The library was filled with dark tables, old dark red carpet dark, and brown shelves. The walls were painted with a dark, warm red that made the room feel some what cosy. Beanbag chairs of varying colors could be seen throughout the room. It felt warm conpared the rest of the school's cold and echoey hallways and classrooms.

Serena seemed to forget I was even there for a while as she paroozed through the shelves, stopping suddenly whenever a title of interest caught her eye. She attempted to reach one in particular but seemed to be having trouble. I stepped in and stretched my hand up to it with few problems and handed it to her.

"Thanks!" she said.

The book was rather thick. I was surprised Serena could lift it. The pages from what I could see were yellowed and weathered. The cover was a picture of beatiful tapestry of a Lucario and what looked like an Aura Guardian. The title engraved with gold letters read: Mysteries of Aura.

"You like this kind of thing?" I asked.

She nodded and began taking the book up to the counter. The librarian was still nowhere to be seen. Though instead of leaving Serena reached over the desk and found some sticky notes. Before I could even ask about this she said, "I know the librarian. We do this a lot," and then went back to sribbling on the sticky note. She reached to plaster it on his computer. After doing so she led me out of the library a stack of 7 books in her hands with the Mysteries of Aura book at the bottom.

For some reason that one book gave me a slew of mixed feelings.

But I can't put my finger on why.

Wow pretty long chapter considering how I usually write. Hope you guys enjoyed. Sorry for slow updates. I'm having issues with this story but I swear to see it through till it's all wrapped up.

Question of the day: Favorite fandom outside of Pokemon?

For me it changes a lot but currently Undertale. It's pretty awesome. For anyone who doesn't know, Undertake is a game with great characters, fun secrets and great mechanics and stories. I freaking love it!

Anyways, that's it for now! See y'all next read!