27.
chapter twenty-seven:
Clemont called,
and professor
Sycamore laughed
for an hour,
dayum.

"Would you please look at me?" I whispered, staring intently over a row at her.

"She can't hear you!" May hissed, and my eyes darted to the girl beside me. "You're a mile away from her and whispering when there's so much automobile noise!"

I arched my eyebrows, glanced at my phone, and then back at May. "Shall I send her a text?"

The girl sighed. "What do you expect her to do now?"

"I want her attention," I replied, licking my lips. The person whose attention I was craving was seated beside her friend Shauna, talking excitedly with her little group of friends. She wasn’t even glancing my way, even though I was her friend too. "I want her pretty bluebell eyes on me, and me alone."

"Geez, she's spending time with her friends! Why don't you learn to do that?"

"I'm her friend too! And all you guys do is bicker." I pointed at the pair in front of us, who were already in the middle of a heated argument. I then quirked an eyebrow at May. "Or daydream about your boyfriend on the other bus."

She turned beet red. "Hey! I'm not thinking about Drew!"

"Say that to yourself. I'm bored!"

"You're starting to sound obsessive—"

A shiver ran down my spine at her words, and I hurried to retort. "No, I genuinely like her!"

"But you don't sound like it. Tell me, who craves a girl's attention unless he's infatuated—"

"I like like her! Not just for her looks, y'know."

"You just admitted you want her, oh, 'pretty bluebell eyes' on you, and she's not even your girlfriend."

My frown deepened. "I'm beginning to hate how you're making me sound, May."

The girl shrugged diplomatically. "Just pointing out a girl's P-O-V, you see. If I were in her boots, and if Drew were behaving this way, I'd definitely feel creeped out. I'm genuinely concerned for my friend."

I rolled my eyes. Genuinely concerned, my foot. "Thanks, but you don't have to be. Brocko taught me everything—"

"It's not you I'm worried about. It's the poor girl. She's being stalked by so many guys—"

"Who in the holy name of Arceus dares to set his eyes on my girl—"

"I don't know? The one sitting near me?"

I brought up a clenched fist and smacked Gary's head hard. The boy yelped and turned to me in protest. "You've started taking Misty's side too?! You're supposed to be my best friend!" Huh?

"Yes! Thank you for knocking sense into him, Ash!" Misty exclaimed, shaking my hand. Double huh?

"You got the wrong person!" May laughed. Meme cat huh?

"Wait, what?"

"What?"

"No, seriously, what?"

"Geez, chill out!" May intervened. "It's a misunderstanding, and Ash did not take Misty's side, so you guys might as well continue your argument—"

"Ash, you son of a Starmie—"

"Hey, I don't need a Starmie as a father!"

I backtracked into my seat as Misty attempted to smack my head. "All you need now is my fist in your face!"

"No!"

The bus lurched forward, and I felt my fingers slipping from my phone. I juggled it mid-air and managed to catch it. There was a notification.

"Yes!"

"Wait a second before you punch me," I protested, immediately turning to read her text.

Serena <3: Having fun? :)

You: Nah.

Serena <3: What? I just saw you in a rather compromising position. -•w-•

My cheeks heated up.

You: The bus jerked on something. Didn't you feel it?

Serena <3: I did, but I'm quite graceful, if you hadn't noticed.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes as I typed in a response.

You: You seem to be having a lot more fun.

Serena <3: They're such wonderful friends. What can I say?

I looked up, trying to beat my jealousy down, only to see my friends huddled over me. "Eh?" I backed away further into my seat as they straightened in theirs.

"Nothing. We were just curious as to what convinced you to take my punch," Misty said bluntly. I felt my throat tighten in embarrassment as I whisper-shouted.

"There's something called privacy!"

The three of them made to protest, but were cut short by Professor Sycamore's exclamation.

"Oh! We are receiving a call on the onboard TV. Does anyone know how to attend it? Er, it has some unusual buttons, let's see… Ah-ha!"

His final note echoed four times as we saw a yellow blur on the screen.

"Ah-ha! Ah-ha! Ah-ha! Ah-ha!"

"Okay, but why am I hearing myself so many times?" He scratched his goatee. "And what's this yellow thing?"

You: When life gives you lemons…

Serena <3: Throw them at the video cam? :0

You: Nope. Show them on the video cam.

Serena <3: Haha, thank you, English Professor.

You: :)

"It's done, yeah. There was some bit of a netttttt—" By then, the entire bus was laughing. "-work issue." We heard Clemont finally complete his buffering sentence before backing away from the video camera. Professor Olympe smiled while we saw the rest of the students wave and shout incoherently.

We waved back, and I nudged May's elbow when Drew gave an extra wave. The professors started chatting.

"We finally managed to connect, Augustine."

"I had no clue we were supposed to call."

"It wasn't on the agenda, but then again, who cares about that six-letter word?"

Professor Sycamore laughed. "Yeah, nobody."

In the back, Dawn waved, and we exchanged glances. I even caught Serena's eye. "Who's she waving at?"

Misty shrugged. "Who knows? Just wave back." And that we did.

The call went on for a minute or two, confirming the plans before hanging up. Everybody went back to their excited chatter, and I found myself longing to talk to Serena.

Last seen three minutes ago…

I looked at her giggling with her friends. Cute.

My lips quirked up into a goofy grin when an idea hit me. An idea to make you notice me.

— 💌 —

Hey guys,
The plot of Teenage Dream starts from this act! I guess you'll know what's going to happen, but you'll see the actual reason as to why Ash does what he does. :)

Thank you for reading!

Miyoko x