May looked down at her word count and moaned. It she ever had to write another sentence on the production of artificial pokéblock and its effects on pokémon ever again it would be too soon. She told herself this was the last time she'd wait last minute to start her assignment. She knew it wasn't.
Feeling the weight of a thousand lectures about late assignments from her roommate Dawn off her shoulders, May pulled out her cell phone and opened snapchat.
princess of hoenn to ketch_these_hands, oakgary, and DAWN
(picture of May's laptop)
finished my paper with ten minutes to spare! ;)))
Ketchum_these_hands
(picture of Ash with his 3ds)
JUST CAUGHT MY FIRST SHINY WHAAAT
May rolled her eyes. How was Ash still in school when all he did was play pokémon?
DAWN
(picture of her with the skitty filter, scowling)
Cutting it close!
May laughed and tossed her phone aside. There were eight minutes until midnight, and she was starving. She'd been writing four to five hours with only two bathroom breaks and a short call to Kelly to ask for her notes on pokéblock. She knew none of the mess halls would be open, and the quick café closed at midnight. That meant she'd have to find a ride to town and hit a drive thru.
The problem was finding a ride.
princess of hoenn to Story
(May with arched brow and pleading face, crying emoji stickers placed randomly)
EMERGENCY. NEED FOOD! Who wants to give me a ride asap? (((:
She could practically hear Dawn's sigh of contempt.
May was starting to lose hope when ten minutes went by without a response, when a notification popped up.
Drew Hayden is typing…
May's stomach lurched. Of all the people... Of course Drew would take this opportunity to make fun of her. Why had she added him again?
A blue square appeared next to Drew's name, informing May she had a message waiting to be read. She hesitantly tapped it.
Drew Hayden
Kyogre Hall right? Be ready in ten minutes.
Unless you'd rather starve lol
May stared at her screen. What? That was unexpected. Drew was actually going to give her a ride? Also how did he know what hall she was in? She didn't know what to think. Was it worth it? Maybe she should tell him not to bother…
Her stomach growled in protest.
princess of hoenn to Drew Hayden
yeah kyogre hall. Thanks?
Drew opened the snap immediately, and she waited to see if he'd have anything else to say. She was half expecting him to tell her he had been joking, but she waited and got no response. Two minutes went by and she still got nothing so she figured she'd better start getting ready.
May discarded her pink silk pajama pants for some comfortable knee length leggings, and pulled her red hoodie over her head. She spent more time than she'd like trying to find her brush, and decided to just pull her hair up in a bun. It's not like she was trying to look good for someone like Drew Hayden.
She left her dorm five minutes after the ten minute mark, hoping he'd still be outside, if he'd even actually bothered to show up at all. She used the front entrance, and scanned the streets for a car that could be Drew's.
Her phone buzzed.
Drew Hayden
About time.
May frowned at her phone, and looked around for wherever he was waiting.
Drew Hayden
What are you doing?
I'm the purple maserati
May snorted. A Maserati? Of course he would drive a fancy sports car. Fucking entitled rich kid.
It wasn't hard to find the purple Maserati among the other cars on the curb, but still she nervously looked to make sure Drew was in the driver's seat before opening the door.
"I should have known you'd keep me waiting," he said.
May had half the mind the slam the door and walk back to her dorm. But she was so, so hungry. And this seemed to be her only solution. "I wasn't sure if you were serious or just messing with me," she said truthfully. She thought she saw him frown out of the corner of her eye but when she looked back his face was sporting his usual smug expression. She must have imagined it.
"I was going to drive past these dorms anyway and was heading into town for something to eat myself when I saw your story. You seemed desperate."
"Gee, I'm touched," she replied sarcastically. "So did you have something in mind because I don't know about you but I'm a broke college student who already used up her entire meal plan and has like four dollars... so I'd like to keep it cheap."
Normally she wouldn't feel the need to clarify this, seeing as just about everyone was a broke college kid, but seeing as Drew was driving a maserati and wore a watch that looked like it could cover a whole semester of her tuition, she spared no details.
He was pulling away from the curb when he said, "There's a Taco Bell not too far from here. How does that sound?"
May had to fight a laugh. She couldn't picture Drew eating anything off a Taco Bell menu.
"Mmmm. Of course!" In all honesty, at that point May could eat just about anything.
The conversation seemed like it was going to end there, but May couldn't handle the thought of making an already awkward car ride more uncomfortable, so she scrambled for something to say. They were stopped at a red light when she blurted out, "What were you doing out so late, anyway?"
Drew seemed surprised at her attempt to start conversation, but quickly recovered. "Oh, interested are we?" May was quick to object but he cut her off. "I just got out of work. On Tuesdays I have the late shift at a local florist."
If May had been expecting anything, it wasn't that. "You like flowers?"
Drew shrugged. "Yeah, I do," he confessed nonchalantly, turning to her. She nearly gasped when she met his eyes. Their viridescent color caught the light just right and she couldn't help but think about how pretty they looked.
He was looking at her with those eyes without saying anything for so long she thought her heart was going to fly out of her chest, but finally the light turned green. Like his eyes.
He cleared his throat and hit the gas. "Do you?"
Something about Drew asking such a genuine question mixed with the memory of his stare had May fighting a blush. She pushed it down as far as she could. "I, uh, love flowers actually."
What the actual hell? Calm down, May. This is Drew Hayden, not Steven Stone. Calm yourself. You hate this guy.
He nodded, his lips turned ever slightly upward.
Not much was said after that and soon enough he was pulling into the Taco Bell drive thru. Once May got her food she was too focused on filling her empty stomach and forgetting his green eyes to try and start up another conversation. Before she knew it she was waving goodbye and walking back into her dorm.
She felt that blush from earlier creep back onto her face as she closed her door and flopped face first onto her bed.
xx
Two weeks had gone by since May's midnight adventure with Drew, and despite their interaction that night being friendly enough, their exchanges in class didn't change (much to her surprising and infuriating disappointment.) He still took every opportunity to somehow make her look bad in front of their Coordinating Fundamentals professor. Mr. Contesta.
If she put on a good performance, he'd always volunteer to go next and manage to outshine her with a smirk on his face. If she answered a question, he'd contradict her with a flick of his stupid green hair. Everything she did he did better, and she couldn't stand it. She'd show him one day. It was both a threat and a promise.
And to keep that promise, she'd have to do better than him on midterms, which meant she had to come up with a perfect appeal that would knock the socks off both Drew and the Professor.
She was on her fourth cup of coffee when a green hat was thrown onto her table and her friend and roommate, Dawn, slumped down on the chair across from her. "Finally! We're closed!"
May looked up from her notes and was shocked to find the café empty. Just how long had she been studying? "Oh."
Dawn lifted the apron over her head and threw it down next to the hat. "Find the perfect appeal routine yet?"
May looked down at all the different colored notes she'd taken (ever since Dawn had shared her color coordinated notes with May to help with her finals last semester, she'd decided to follow her example,) and sighed. "Not yet... but I know it's just around the corner! I can feel it!"
"That's the spirit! No need to worry! Now get up and help me clean these tables!"
After the tables were cleaned and the seats were stacked, May swept the floor while Dawn got the mop ready. It was May's way of paying for the four cups of coffee.
Dawn was just about done when May felt her phone buzz in her pocket. She had a text from Ash and…
May brought the phone closer to her face to make sure she was seeing correctly. Unless her eyes were playing tricks on her she had a snap from Drew. She fought the urge to immediately open snapchat and instead checked her texts.
From Ash Ketchum
- gay wants to know if ur coming to his party Saturday
- *gary
- BUT I MEAN
- lol anyway #cometomyboyfriendsparty
May rolled her eyes, but couldn't help but smile. Typical Ash.
To Ash Ketchum
- ofc! wouldn't miss it!
After sending her texts, she took a deep breath and stared at the Snapchat notification. For whatever reason, her heart was thumping against her chest. It was probably nothing. She opened the app and let thumb hover over the red square for much longer than necessary before tapping it.
Drew Hayden
(A beautiful arrangement of carnations of various colors)
Thought of you. What do you think?
May stared wide eyed at the flowers until the image disappeared, and then cursed under her breath. "What the hell?" What does he mean 'what do you think'? 'Thought of you?' Did he mean to send this to her? Sure she told him she liked flowers but did that really warrant random, possibly flirty snapchats?
She groaned. "What does this mean?"
"What does what mean?" Dawn said over May's shoulder.
May shrieked, and hid her screen from her friend's prying eyes. "Dawn!"
Dawn was looking at her with a single raised eyebrow. "Who ya talking to?" she questioned, "and why is your face all red?"
May scoffed. "My face is not all red," she objected, "and no one. I'm not talking to anyone important. Ash was just asking if I was coming to Gary's party."
Dawn squinted her eyes. "Uh-huh...And a text from Ash got you so flustered you couldn't finish sweeping the floor? Sure, Jan."
May pouted. "Don't fling your memes at me."
Dawn pointed to the broom. "Chop, chop."
After the cafe was all closed up and the doors were locked, Dawn asked May if she wanted to get a bite to eat, but May had the feeling if she went she was in for more of her questioning, so she declined. "I actually wanted to stop by Kelly's for a while and ask her about different types of berries. It might help me out during the midterm, so."
Dawn beamed, happy to see May taking her school work more seriously, even if it was just so she could one up Drew.
Drew.
She suddenly remembered his snap, and after saying goodbye to Dawn she looked a
to make sure no one was around and replied to his snap. She wanted to look at it again but if she replayed it he would know, and there was no way wanted that.
She tried to think of how she could respond. Not a picture of her face, because even if it was dark outside she was not risking him seeing how flushed she was.
princess of hoenn to Drew Hayden
(a picture of the sky)
did u mean to send this to me?
Two minutes went by and he hadn't opened it. Then five. Then ten.
She stuck her phone in her pocket and stormed over to Groudon Hall. She called up Kelly to let her know she was dropping by and entered the building.
Kelly lived on the fourth floor so May always took the elevator. Stairs and her had bad blood. She was pressing the up button when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket.
Drew Hayden
(a photo of him making a confused face at the camera. He was wearing an apron and there were flowers in the background)
Who else would I have sent it to?
May nearly threw the phone on the floor. Dammit, she wasn't expecting a selfie.
She was both relieved and disappointed when his eyes vanished from her screen. She had just gotten them out of her head.
princess of hoenn to Drew Hayden
(a bunch of elevator buttons)
uhm maybe one of ur friends idk
Drew Hayden
(a single red rose)
Aren't we friends?
Did he really just ask that? Did Drew, the guy who spared no moment to make fun of her, the guy who performed gorgeous appeals all while looking at her with a smug grin just to rub in the fact that he was better than her, just ask if they were friends?
Was this some sort of war strategy? Was he trying to get into her head because midterms were coming up? Trying to act all friendly with her so she'd lose her mojo? He must have seen the way she'd been looking at him in class. He must have known she was preparing to destroy him.
princess of hoenn to Drew Hayden
(her middle finger)
I'LL SHOW U. JUST WAIT TILL MIDTERMS BUDDY
After she hit send, she shoved her phone into her pocket and exited the elevator. She was so worked up she didn't even knock before entering Kelly's room, which was a mistake.
"Oh, jeez, Kelly!" May put her hands over her eyes. A beautiful dark skinned girl with braids and next to no clothes laid beneath Kelly, obviously irritated at the disruption. May couldn't blame her. "I called you for a reason."
This was not the first time she had walked in on Kelly and one of her girlfriends.
"May! I thought you would take longer! Your dorm is like four blocks from here!" she said loudly, not bothering to cover up her completely exposed chest.
"I walked over from the cafe! I was right outside your dorm when I called!" Oh god, just what had Kelly been doing when she called. "Look, I'll just come back later-"
"No! No, it's okay." Kelly insisted, her breasts bouncing as she spoke. The girl whose name May did not know made a face that clearly said it was not, in fact, okay.
May sighed, trying to erase this image from her mind, and turned to leave. "Just bring your notes to class tomorrow." She closed the door behind her without giving Kelly time to object. Well so much for that, she thought, walking back to the elevator.
Her phone buzzed.
A snap from Drew.
She ignored it.
xx
When May arrived at her dorm, Dawn was sitting on her bed with her plush piplup in her lap, laptop playing some foreign film from Kalos, and fresh tears on her cheeks. She had a box of tissues in arms reach.
"O-oh. You're back early." She shut her laptop quickly and composed herself. "How did it go?"
May didn't have any words to describe it. Instead she just let out a long, inhuman sounding groan. "Ugggghhhuuuuhhhggghhuuuuuuuuuuuuu."
Dawn nodded. "Go on."
"Kelly had company." May said.
"Oh," Dawn uttered before it actually sunk in, "Oh."
May stomped over to Dawn's bed and plopped down, making Dawn cringe. She'd just made her bed. "And Drew Hayden is sending me snapchats! Drew mother effing Hayden. He sent me a picture of flowers! He had the nerve to ask if we were friends! Who does that? What a total jerk. I hate him."
Dawn seemed to perk up at that. "Maybe he likes you! Didn't you say you guys had dinner together last week?"
"We had taco bell in his stupid maserati!" she shouted, resting her head on her friend's lap.
"Maybe you should try to get to know him. He might not actually be as bad as you think," Dawn said, running her hands through May's hair just like she always did when May was distraught. "Maybe he's always been interested in you but was just never able to show it until recently."
May stuck out her tongue. "Blech. No that's not it. I think he's trying to trick me."
Her hand stopped. "What? May, that's ridiculous."
"You're ridiculous." she responded, biting the inside of her lip.
Dawn pushed May off her lap."Okaaaaay, I'm done with you. I'm gonna finish this movie now. Talk to me when you're ready to be a rational human being."
May glared at her, and sighed. "Fine. Whatever," she said before sulking over to her bed. Why was she even letting this get to her so much? At first she'd been mad at the revelation that maybe Drew was trying to throw her off her game, but now she realized maybe she was disappointed.
Maybe she didn't hate the idea of Drew snapchatting her so much as she hated the idea of it being all just a joke to him.
She opened snapchat, and saw that he had sent her a direct message. She tapped the blue box next to his name.
Drew Hayden
lol
Such a tiny message and yet it filled May with so much rage.
princess of hoenn to Drew Hayden
we'll see who's laughing when I demolish u
A blue circle appeared next to her message, indicating he'd read it.
Drew Hayden is typing…
She waited for his response, but he must have stopped typing because she'd been able to take a shower and put on her pajamas and still: nothing.
Oh well.
When she woke up the next morning, she reached for her phone to check the time.
And saw that she had a message from Drew.
She immediately opened it.
Drew Hayden
Would you like to go out sometime?
Holy. Ho-oh.
May's entire body was hot. What what what what? He couldn't be serious. This proved it. He was trying to get in her head. That was the only possible explanation. She clenched her fists.
Well fine. She'd play his little game. She'd play it right back at him.
princess of hoenn to Drew Hayden
sure (: send me your number I'll text you.
She hit send and smiled triumphantly.
Let the battle begin.