The morning was unbearable. Pain shot through all parts of my body. My legs were sore and wobbled like Jello. My chest hurt too and my back. But worst of all was my head. I had a headache that died down then would come back out of no where. It felt like someone was constants hammering my head with a mallet. But that wasn't the worst part.

Paul and I had the same B and C hour. So I had to deal with his crap for 2 hours straight. I could feel his burning stare. Whenever we made eye contact his mouth curled into the most despicable, daunting, taunting grin. I tuned out most of the things he said to me, but that didn't stop me from wanting knock him out.

The bell rang and I got up slowly and made my way out of the classroom. I grabbed my head with both hands and gritted my teeth as the pain came back with 4 times the pain. I stopped, leaning against an empty wall, trying to catch my breath. I felt a tap on my shoulder turned to see none other than Dawn Berlitz, a  worried expression on her face.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"It's nothing, just a headache," I replied, though, honestly I'd started wondering if that was really all it was.

Dawn insisted I see the nurse about it or at least get an aspirin from her. I didn't argue. Dawn was so stubborn there was no point.

After that, we headed to the cafeteria and boy was I glad. I was starving. Dawn and I got in the lunch line and stood in suffocating silence. Dawn was the first to break it.

"So why exactly are you here?"

"To get an education like literally everyone else," I replied.

"Haha." she said." But I want the real reason. I know you hate school and you'd rather be on the road than here."

Silence.

"Is it about you're mom?" she said lowering her voice.

I choked down a sob and forced myself to nod.

We stood there for a bit and moved up through the lunch line quiet as mice. Finally I forced myself to say, "I want to do something that she would be proud of."

"She'd still be proud of you for your achievements in the league."

I sighed. "The night before my mom disappeared I got an invitation from one of the staff members to join. Obviously I wasn't interested, but Mom thought it'd be a great new experience. We argued for a while about it and I left for my room and started punching the mattress. Even before she was gone I felt terrible but afterwards, I felt even worse. I feel like I owe her this much for being such a sucky son and crybaby."

"But you're not..."

"I appreciate you trying to cheer me up. But that's not true. I was being a baby. My mom was just trying to help me and I was to stubborn to realize that." My hands clenched into fists as I walked up to grab my lunch tray.

We walked through the line without saying a thing I wait and lean against a wall for Dawn to make her final choices, taking the opportunity to scan the tables for Serena. Before I could actually find her Dawn had finished and was standing next to me.

"Looking for Serena?" she asked.

I nodded.

"She sits with my group. C'mon."

~~~

Dawn and I met back when we were about 9. I'd gone to the inn to check in with my mom and was making my way to Viridian Forest so I could get home. And I happened to look into a shop window and see a blunette staring back at me. I smiled and waved and she nodded with a sad look in her eyes. I went into the store and found the girl where I had last seen her, sitting on the bench by the window.

"Hi there!" I said, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Everything okay?"

"Uh, yeah!" she said quickly plastering a smile on her face.

I looked at her skeptically but shrugged and walked over to sit next to her. "I'm Ash Ketchum! So what's your name?"

"Dawn Berlitz"

"Cool! Nice to meet you Dawn" I said beaming. "So what are you up to?"

"Nothing really," she said through a sigh. "I'm just waiting for my mom to finish clothes shopping."

"Don't you like anything here?" I asked. I was surprised since all the girls I knew loved this store.

"Not really, none of it's really my style."

I sat thinking for a moment then stood up and turned to her. "I might be able to help with that."

Dawn looked at me quizzically for a moment, but I managed to convince her to follow me. We went to the back of the store and I started combing through racks with her. It was kind of like a treasure hunt. Even though shopping was never my thing, I enjoyed seeing her happy and I enjoyed talking to her.

"Do you really have to go?" Dawn asked as they made there way back to the front of the store. "I really wanted to hang out more" she added softly.

I smiled a little. "Well, can I have your number. Then maybe we can arrange something tomorrow"

"Sure!" she happily exclaimed.

We hung out the next few days consistently growing closer. Eventually are moms met up too and became pretty close. We were all kinda like family to each other.

~~~

I noticed Dawn looking at my shoulder, probably wondering why Pikachu wasn't there.

"I'll tell you later," I promised.

As we walked over to the table, I received tons of stares from other students. Most of them were terrified of me and others were looking at me in astonishment and curiosity as if I was a mad man. Paul and his friends (I'm assuming they were friends) glared at me. I looked away trying not to let Paul get to me, but he always managed to get under my skin. I watched Dawn glare back at them trying not to laugh. She didn't look at all threatening right then. There were times where she did. But right now was not one of them. We kept walking to join the others doing our best to forget about Paul and the pain he caused.