Authors Note: So I am back with a high school fic. There will be some music here and there so keep in mind that I will change some lyrics to match the story. Any song titles will be listed at the end of the chapter. I will try to update as soon as possible but no promises on a weekly basis, this first chapter is to give you guys a bit of a preview so it might take me a little while to update at first. Enjoy.

"Dawn!"

Hearing her name being called, she turned to see her best friend walking towards her with a flick of his bright green hair.

"Hi Drew, long time no see!" She joked.

"I saw you yesterday," Drew said with a smirk.

"I know, it just feels like its been forever. Looking forward to our first day of senior year?" She said, feigning enthusiasm.

Drew rolled his eyes, "Oh yeah, I can't wait."

Dawn brushed her long blue hair with her fingers and she smiled. They had finally made it to senior year. It had always seemed like high school was an uphill battle for them and they were finally here. Only one more year until she could graduate and never have to go back.

It had always been the two of them. Ever since kindergarten, they had been the best of friends, with no one else ever bothering to give them the time of day. It had all started when Ursula, the horrible yet strangely popular girl in school, had told the other kids that she didn't like Dawn's hair. It spread like the plague and no one wanted to play with her. Except for Drew, he had never cared what the other kids thought. And after one day with a fort made from building blocks, they became friends. It was a bond that had lasted for years. And although they only had each other; it was enough for them.

"I guess I just can't believe that we are finally here. This is finally happening," She admitted as a look of awe crossed her face.

Drew glanced at her, his gaze softening as he let his guard down – something that occurred rarely – and smiled genuinely.

"Yeah, it's about time."

The rest of the walk to their school – Hearthome High – was short and a comfortable silence had washed over them.

As they walked up the steps of the beautiful stone building, Dawn spoke up, "I really hope we are in home room together this year. Last year sucked without you."

Drew noticed the waver in her voice and stopped in front of her, placing both hands reassuringly on her shoulders, "Dawn, this year I am positive we will be put together for at least a few classes. Okay?"

She nodded but her mind wasn't put to rest. She wasn't sure if she could take another year without having him in at least a few classes. She followed, letting him lead her to the admin office to get their schedules.

After pushing through the busy crowd, receiving their schedules and being assigned their lockers, they were finally walking through the corridors to homeroom. "I'm so relieved! We have homeroom, P.E and science together! It's a shame we don't have music together but I'll take three classes, those are good odds," she was raving excitedly about the outcome.

Drew smirked at her; it was so like Dawn to get excited over the most basic of things.

They found two seats to the middle right side of the room, with no one even noticing that either of them had walked in, which was normal for the both of them. They sat down, with Drew pulling out a book to read and Dawn grabbing her sketch pad and drawing the scene before her, some chairs, a desk and a few students.

Dawn was in her own little world when drawing. It was one of her favourite things to do because it just made her feel so relaxed and at ease. She loved that she could express herself and her feelings through art and it always made her feel better when she was feeling sad.

While she was shading in the detailing of the chair in front of her, she furrowed her brow as she realised the class had all of a sudden got noisier. Frustrated with the loud class, Dawn looked to the front of the room to see what the big deal was.

There he was.

Paul Shinji.

Dawn stared. He had glorious purple hair that went to his shoulders that adorned a black leather jacket and simple grey t-shirt underneath. He wore dark skinny jeans and a black pair of vans that looked pretty worn out. He was tall, perhaps just over 6ft 2, with tanned skin and muscles that reflected his athleticism.

All of these things were not even close to being awarded his best quality. No, his best feature was his dark, mysterious onyx eyes. Dawn had never seen them up close, but she was sure that it would be easy to get lost in them. They seemed to stare piercingly wherever they gazed. Oh how she loved his eyes.

She sighed dreamily as she thought back to the day he had played her hero. The day that she had basically fallen in love with him.

It was year four, when a kid named Arthur, who had always made comments about Dawn's navy hair and likened her to a blueberry, cornered her one day. Drew was almost always with her and had always defended her. This day however, Drew was home, sick from school and Arthur had pushed Dawn's books to the floor and tripped her over, all the while laughing loudly.

Dawn had been so upset she couldn't even defend herself. And while Arthur and a few other students laughed at her, something unusual happened. A young boy with purple hair stood between the fallen Dawn and Arthur, telling him that what he was saying was cruel and that if he didn't stop he would take it to the teachers.

It had turned out that Arthur was bullying a lot of kids and eventually got asked to leave the school.

Drew was always there for her, but he couldn't be with her twenty four hours a day and Paul had stepped up to the plate that fateful day. Ever since then, she had dreamt about being swept off her feet by her knight in shining purple armour. He hadn't talked to her since, and she had always been too nervous to talk to him, not that she was ever able to get close enough to try.

Dawn was resting her chin on her hand, with her elbow leaning on her desk as she stared at him, like she pretty much always did. At least, that's what she did until she felt Drew elbow her in the ribs.

"Dude seriously? You're gonna start drooling soon." Drew teased.

"What? I wasn't drooling I was just…dreaming." She sighed and dropped her head onto the table.

"Dawn, maybe it's time you um…forgot about Shinji over there, because well, let's face it, he doesn't even know you exist."

Dawn groaned, "but maybe things will be different this year?"

Drew gave her a pointed look and Dawn sighed, going back to her drawing until the bell.

"Third period literature," Dawn mumbled under her breath as she walked down the halls looking for the correct room.

When she found the right door, she entered and found a seat to the side of the room near the window. After organising her pens and her notebook, she was ready to listen to the teacher, who was running late.

After finding the scenery out the window to be rather boring she looked around the room.

Her jaw nearly dropped when she realised that Paul was in her class. Almost as quick as lightning she turned straight to the front of the room, wondering how the hell she was supposed to sit in a class, listen, and pay attention without him distracting her.

She had never been in a class with him before, well besides homeroom. She wondered if he worked hard at school, or if he was just another laid back rich kid who could afford to fail and still go to one of the best Universities.

It wasn't until the end of the lesson that Dawn managed to tune back in from her thoughts of Paul.

"Now class I assume you have all completed your summer reading project?" She raised a brow, offering a knowing look before continuing, "Which is why we will be discussing the general themes and plot of Pride and Prejudice tomorrow in class. I suggest you all bring your notes with you."

The class groaned, clearly none of them had read it. Dawn, however, was a dedicated school student so she had not only read the book, but had read it multiple times and taken detailed notes, as she had done for all over her summer homework for each subject.

She needed to get high marks across the board if she was to get a scholarship into the Cerulean City Arts Programme. The competition was tough because it was the type of school that allowed you to make up your mind later. It had a general focus on school work, as well as a varied arts program with Music, Visual Arts, Dance and Sports.

Dawn wasn't sure what she wanted to do, so she figured something so broad would give her a few extra years to decide. It was especially hard because she had so many interests.

She was very passionate about her artwork, however she didn't think she was good enough to make it. On the other hand she loved to sing with Drew, which again, she wasn't sure if she was good enough to make it. Lastly, if neither option worked out, she could settle on something academic focused. It was the perfect school for her.

The unfortunate side of things was that her and her mother were not very well off, which meant it would be tough for her to afford to go to university at all. That was why she was working so hard at school, ensuring her grades were good enough to try and get a scholarship and gain a bit of extra time to make the important decisions.

She sighed as she walked to fourth period. She had saved every penny from her part time job as a tutor over the last three summers and it still would only be enough to get her through a semester at CCAP. Trying to distract herself she thought about the rest of the day, luckily, she had fourth period with Drew which was science before lunch.

When she arrived at class she beamed and waved excitedly when she saw Drew had saved a seat for her.

Sitting down, she began talking about her last three classes, until she realised he was not even paying attention.

"What? Is something wrong?"

"Huh? Oh, nah I was just thinking about how unlucky we are. How is it possible that we managed to get all six of them in one class?"

Dawn looked over, and sure enough, there was Paul sitting with all of his friends. The group was very well liked among the senior class, and it was rare to find any of them without the others somewhere close.

The group consisted of Paul's two best male friends, Ash Ketchum and Gary Oak. They all played on the soccer team together. Ash was known for being really friendly, whereas Gary was seen as extremely self-absorbed. All three of them were sought after by the entire schools girl population but Gary was the only one who really embraced all the attention. Ash was already taken by the girl with the red hair sitting across from him, Misty Waterflower.

She was athletic and a bit of a tomboy, but it was as if she didn't even know how beautiful she was. According to school gossip she had quite the temper, but Dawn had never seen if for herself.

Next to Misty was a girl with long brown hair and green eyes. Her name was Leaf Green and she was one of the smartest girls in school, she was also one of the richest.

May Maple was the last of the six, she always wore a red bandana in her hair and was always nice to everyone. She seemed a little ditsy to Dawn, and she was rarely seen without Paul. It had always been speculated that they were dating but both had denied the rumours. Dawn wasn't sure though, they seemed to get along pretty well from where she was standing. The one thing all of them had in common was that none of them knew Dawn or Drew even existed.

Dawn frowned slightly, turning back to face Drew, "At least they seem nice. I'd prefer them over Ursula and her evil minions Brianna and Melody any day."

"Good point," Drew mused as the teacher walked in to begin their class.

Once the class had finished, the two walked to the cafeteria to quickly fetch lunch and make their way to 'their' tree.

It was a quiet place slightly away from the school where they had always sat to eat lunch.

"Oh don't forget we have that senior mixer thing to promote unity Friday night." Dawn said with fake enthusiasm.

"Unity? Us? We are all about other people." Drew had a very dry humour, which Dawn loved. Not many people picked up on it because he came across as serious but she always knew he was joking.

"I'm glad you brought your guitar today, I was working on some new lyrics that I wanted to try." She passed him the paper from her pocket and proceeded to get her sketchbook out.

As Drew worked out the music and looked over the lyrics, she absentmindedly began to sketch.

"Wow you really are obsessing over Paul today," Drew stated.

After realising Drew was looking over her shoulder at her drawing she sighed, "I just…it would be nice if just once he would notice me."

She was now shading bits of Paul's hair with her grey lead.

"You really are good at that," Drew said as he pointed to her very life-like drawing of Paul in the clothes he was wearing that day.

Dawn gave a weak smile.

"Dawn, if some guy doesn't notice you then you know what? It's his loss. Not yours. One day you're going to meet a guy that does notice you, and thinks you're the only girl in the world for him. Okay?"

He gave her a reassuring smile but decided to start playing the tune to her song to cheer her up a bit.

He played a little bit of it and sang the first line, "I used to bite my tongue and hold my breath."

Dawn looked up and began to sing the next line, "Scared to rock the boat and make a mess."

As they both got a bit more comfortable with the tune Dawn took over singing:

So I sat quietly, agreed politely
I guess that I forgot I had a choice
I let you push me past the breaking point
I stood for nothing, so I fell for everything

You held me down, but I got up
Already brushing off the dust
You hear my voice, you hear that sound
Like thunder gonna shake the ground
You held me down, but I got up
Get ready 'cause I've had enough
I see it all, I see it now

[Chorus]
I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire
'Cause I am a champion and you're gonna hear me roar
Louder, louder than a lion
'Cause I am a champion and you're gonna hear me roar
Oh oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh oh
You're gonna hear me roar

He finished playing and they sat in silence for a bit longer.

"Thanks Drew. That's all I've got so far but I think it sounds pretty good don't you?"

He nodded, "yeah, it's good but we can work on it some more tomorrow because lunch time is over now."

The two gathered their things and walked back into the school to finish off the day.

That night, Dawn lay on her bed sketching yet another image of Paul as she thought about the school year ahead of her.

"What I would give for this year to be different," She muttered to herself.

Finishing her drawing, she turned off her light and hopped under the covers of her double bed.

After one last thought of Paul, she drifted off to sleep.

Song Choices:

Katy Perry - Roar