"Ahh!" May said happily as she opened up the curtains in her room to the nice summer light. There seemed to be a few clouds in the sky, but that wasn't going to ruin her day. The brunette was ready for her weekend in a new city. It was a new city and a new start for her.
"May! We're going to be at the diner! Meet us there in five!" Her mother yelled wanting her daughter to come help her at the new diner.
May walked out the door. The diner was only about two blocks from her house, so she just walked. May was worried that it was going to rain, since more clouds have come into the sky, so she wore her red hoodie to go with her shorts.
She stopped in front of the new food joint, looking at how nice the exterior looked. "Maple's." Was written in cursive in the front of the store. It was opened at eight am to eight pm on the weekends, and from seven am to eight-thirty pm on the weekdays. She smiled as she walked inside, being greeted by her mother and little brother.
"May! I need you to put this on! And Max! You're going to greet the customers today, okay?" her mother said rushing putting on her uniform to be the cashier. Her cooks came in from the back and started to clean the supplies.
Mrs. Maple looked at her kids as they were ready for today's opening. "You guys ready? Let's open it up!" she turned the neon sign on and she was ready for business!
Drew woke up at around noon. "Ugh..stupid sunlight." he closed his blinds and quietly tried to go back to sleep. Until he heard his phone rang. It was one of his best friends, Ash Ketchum.
"DREW. NEW. FOOD. PLACE. COME. OVER. NOW. GONNA CALL GARY. BYE." Ash said with each word emphasized Ash already hung up by the time Drew could comprehend what he said. He figured he had nothing else to do, so he got up ready for the day.
Drew had his older sister drive him to Ash's house. "Come home at curfew!" She yelled as he got out of the car.
"It's summer. Curfew is 2 in the morning." Drew said sarcastically shutting the door. His sister scoffed and drove off. Drew saw one strange redhead coming his way.
"DREW! DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE FOOD TOO?!" His stange redheaded friend, Kenny, yelled.
"Ken, no need to yell. I'm right here. Yeah I heard, Ash has almost a loud a mouth as you." Drew said.
Kenny knocked on the door and Ash grabbed them to go. Gary was right behind him. "Let's go!" They were all walking to a new food place that they didn't know existed until today.
Drew recognized the part of the city were they were going to. And he wondered about the sign on the front of the door. "Maple's?"
Ash was the first one to walk in, he didn't want to be disrespectful, so he came in took a whiff of the nice diner air and smiled at his friends.
"Hello! And welcome to Maple's, I'm Max Maple, I hope you enjoy the food!" said the adorable little boy, handing them a menu.
Gary was the one who found a place to sit, and it was at a place next to the window. May was the waitress for the four energetic boys.
"Hey, I'm May. Are you guys ready?" May asked wearing a tight pink shirt that had the red logo on it. Her mom had over thought about the shirts and accidently ordered May a shirt that was extra small. The boys ordered, but Drew took his time. More or less to see the girl that he didn't know.
"Hey, grasshead. You going to order?" May said jokingly nudging him, since he was the closest to her.
"Well actually miss sunshine I'll have a burger." Drew said sarcastically.
"Nice one, Mr. Grasshead. Coming right up." May said writing down, 'burger', in all caps on her paper and walking away.
As she was gone the boys talked about her.
"She's so hot. Dude, and I think she's into you." Gary said looking at Drew who he was sitting across the table from.
"Yeah, ask her out!" Kenny says, as everyone was cheering him on.
"Don't you want to get to know her first? You know, start to like her?" Ash asks as the sensible one in the group.
"Very funny guys, you know I wait for people to fawn over me. If I didn't have that, who would I be?" Drew said high and mighty.
"A grasshead." Gary said joking at him.
May came out with their food and they cheer, ready for the goodness that they smelled when they walked in.
"May, do you have a moment?" Gary asked stopping her form leaving. The guys didn't know what he was doing, so they looked at each other in shock.
"What's up?" May asked smiling. Drew noticed something that he didn't think the guys saw, since they weren't looking up at her. Drew saw blue eyes. Blue eyes that he got lost into.
"Do you have a boyfriend?" Gary asked.
May laughed, "Nice try, stranger. Should've asked when you told me your name, it says a lot about a person."
"What does May say about you?" Ash asked.
May looked back at her mom, who was telling her to hurry, "It means you guys are going to make me lose my job, so I need to go. Eat your food. Have a nice time and the whole nine yards!" May walked off. And they dug in.
When May got to her mom she was scolded, "May. We don't have time to flirt with every cute group of boys that come in!"
"They stopped me, mom." May said trying to defend herself.
"Well, don't let that happen again, we have a reputation to make." Her mother says handing May her next tray of food.
"K." May said exasperated at her mom.
When the boys left, they told May their names and walked out. Drew walked home and went to find his sister.
"Do you know anything about that new diner that opened up in town? 'Maple's'?" Drew asked his sister who was on the internet.
"Why do you ask?" his sister, Yuki, asked.
"Can't a boy wonder?" Drew asked.
Yuki looked at her younger brother and laughed, "As long as it's not wondering about too much. About the Diner, it's owned by the Petalburg gym leader's wife. They wanted to persue there dreams, and I guess having a diner is his wife's."
"Okay, thanks Yuki." Drew said walking to his room. He lies down, and all he could think about was the girl with the deep blue eyes. He was about to fall asleep when he phone buzzed. He ignored it the first time, but it wouldn't stop. It was Kenny.
"Hey. What's up?" Drew asked getting up from his bed.
"Barry's gone." Kenny sayid softly, you could tell that he was trying to hold his tears back.
"Gone? What do you mean? He's with his dad." Drew said conspicuously.
Kenny was silent for a second. Drew could hear him sniff, and was afraid of what he was about to say next. He sighed and finally spoke, "He's dead, Drew. Barry died."
Drew was shocked, he didn't know what to feel. Was Kenny kidding? "Kenny. You don't joke about this kind of stuff..."
"You think I would joke about this?! Barry was my best friend, Drew! He's dead! It's on SNN, and his dad called mine. He got in a snowboarding accident." Kenny said, he tried to become calmer. Kenny didn't know why he was angry, or why he was letting it out on Drew. He was just full of emotion.
"Oh my Arceus..." Drew said. He didn't know what to think. Barry was one of his closest friends since grade school. They would fight, and be friends again, but he never felt more sorry than this.
"I'm going to call everyone else. We'll talk later, Drew." Kenny said hanging up. Kenny didn't want to hear Drew sob, and he certainly didn't want Drew to hear him sob.
Drew dropped his phone, he couldn't cry. He just sat there thinking about Barry. He had blue eyes like May. Drew's thoughts drifted to her, and he felt so bad that wasn't thinking about Barry 24/7 like he should've. All he knew was that he was going to attract May because he knew that Barry would've cheered him on, just like his other friends did.
A week since his best friend's death passed. There was going to be a private funeral with Barry's closest friends and family members that day. Drew went to Kenny's, since the guys were meeting there.
"Hey Drew. Everyone's here, we're leaving at 3:30, so feel free to hang around." Kenny said trying to get him to cheer up.
Drew could feel the sadness in the air. No one was talking and all the black everywhere was even more depressing. He saw that Ash, Gary, and Kenny all had striped ties. Drew was the only one wearing a striped bow tie.
Finally 3:30 came around and everyone tried to fit in Kenny's mom's car. It was a van, so it fit Kenny's parents and the guys. Again, it was silent. Kenny's mother tried to turn on the radio to brighten up the mood, but Kenny's dad stopped her from hitting a radio button. He knew that it was a sad time for his son and his friends, and he didn't want anyone to feel even sadder by possible a memory from a song on the radio that Barry would listen to.
Gary broke the silence in the car with a question, "Do you think Barry's looking down on us today?"
The guys looked at him with sadness in their eyes. Kenny answered him, "Of course he is."
"Okay. Just asking, it's really quiet in here." Gary said positioning himself to be more comfortable.
"He wouldn't want the quiet. He'd try and crack a few jokes no matter how upset we were." Ash said smiling, remembering his quirky friend.
"No matter how messed up life was to him, he always has so happy. And to this day, I still wonder why." Drew said looking out the window, hoping the sky or Barry himself could give him the answer he was looking for.
"I know. Because he knew what he had to live for. He lived to make people smile and that gave him the satisfaction he needed to go on." Kenny said, he smiled at the group. The group smiled back. Throughout the car ride to the funeral, they shared memories about Barry. They were all so happy, which made them miss him more.
It was about 45 minutes when the whole ceremony was over. His parents were full of snot and tears, his friends were just crying their eyes out. Every time they wore something with stripes, they would remember Barry. They even buried him in his favorite striped shirt. And that gave Drew an idea.
Back in the car, Drew shared his idea with his friends, "To remember Barry, we should tell everyone to wear stripes."
His friends looked like he just came up with the most genius idea in the whole world, and to them, it was.
"We can start off the school year with something happy. Something hapy to remember him by." Drew said happily, he hoped this showed how much he appreciated Barry.
A month passes, and May hasn't seen 'grasshead' , or made any new friends. She was beginning to wonder if they even lived in this city. She still felt so new and alone. She got up for the first day of school, just wearing jeans, and a hoodie from her hometown of Petalburg.
"May! You need to come down and get your breakfast!" Her mom yelled. The hungry brunette hopped downstairs ready for breakfast. She was always so hungry. Her little brother, Max, tripped her at the end of the stairs.
"Haha!" Max pointed and laughed at her. May was about to grab him from the floor, but he started to run off again.
"Max!" May yelled running to get him. She was limping, and she had a scratch on her chin.
"May! Max! Stop horsing around! Get in here!" their mother said strictly. She went and got a band-aid to put on May's chin.
"Thank you, mom. I'm going now." May said grabbing as many donuts as she can in her hands.
"Where do you think you're going young lady?" Her mom asked strictly.
"To school." May said with a donut in her mouth.
"You forgot your shirt. You're coming straight to the diner after school. Don't forget!" Her mother said throwing the small pink shirt at her.
"Okay, see you later mom! Max!" May said grabbing her bag and leaving. She walked to the nearest high school. Lilycove High. As she found the front of the school, there was just a sea of striped shirts. She didn't know whether it was dress code, or everyone was just so planned out and organized for the first day of school that everyone just decided to wear stripes.
She found her first classroom, and there it was. Everyone in groups of different colored stripes. There was one group in the back not wearing any stripes, and she didn't know whether they were rebellious kids, or just not in the loop, like her. May didn't have any friends yet, so she decided to sit alone.
One of the kids from the no-stripes passes her a note, "You new here?" May noticed the writer of the note had sort of sloppy handwriting. This made her laugh as she wrote back.
"Yeah. Are you, no-stripes?"
The girl with the firey red hair that sent her the note laughed, and as she showed her other friends in the group they laughed too. "You noticed that? Hey, come back here. Let's talk."
May picked up her things and sat by the no-stripe kids. She thought they were pretty strange. One girl in the group, had the red fiery hair. She was wearing blue shorts with suspenders. She had a yellow shirt on, too. Her hair was up. It was still summer, so May understood why she dressed like that. There was a girl with dark brown hair. She was wearing white shorts and a red beanie. She had a dark red shirt on. May thought that this girl really liked red. And finally in the group was a boy. He had raven black hair, and wore a hoodie and jeans like May. He seemed like the laid back kinda guy to her.
"Hey. I'm Misty. This is Lyra and Brendan." said the girl with the red hair.
"I'm May. So, what's going on with all the kids in stripes?" May asked looking at the other kids walking in the room. It got pretty loud in there, so May raised her voice.
"They're doing it in remembrance. Some kid, Barry. He used to always were stripes." Brendan said looking intently at May. He was trying to figure her out.
"People would call him Waldo in the hallways. We didn't really know him, so we just thought we didn't really have to wear the stripes, but almost everyone in this goddamn school is wearing stripes." Lyra said with that potty-mouth of hers.
May nodded and they sat in an awkward silence until Misty asked May something.
"So, you're from Petalburg?" Misty asked looking at May's hoodie.
"Yeah."
"Do you like the Petalburg Persians?" Misty asked, now she was just testing May, to see if she could stay in the group. The Petalburg Persians were a football team.
"No, oh my Arceus, they freaking suck. Did you see the game last night? Tebow could've caught that. He's the only decent guy on the team. I'm more of a Slateport Slakings kind of girl." May said pounding on the table. She was actually into football and it surprised everyone.
"I love the Slateport Slakings! May, we are going to be great friends. Finally, someone I can talk to about sports!" Misty said happily. Her and May high fived and the group just smiled.
"How long have you lived here?" Lyra asked.
"Oh, just since summer started. I've been working at my mother's diner, 'Maple's', for the time being." May replied.
"Is that where you got that cut on your chin?" Brendan asked pointing at it.
May blushed since it meant that he was looking at her face, "Actually, I tripped this morning."
Lyra and Misty laughed, "Do you want to hear a funny tripping story?"
Brendan suddenly looked at them and got red faced, "She doesn't need to hear this! Geez guys, why do you always need to embarrass me?"
"Because we're your best friends and we love you. Okay, so Brendan was walking out of his house, me and Lyra here were coming up to get him, and all of a sudden we see him fall, right?" Misty looked at Lyra to continue.
"At first we thought, 'oh man, is he hurt?', but then we came up closer to his house, and he was getting bit by his Lillipup. We asked him why and..." Lyra then looked at Brendan to finish the story.
"I was going out to look for Lillipup, tripped over the steps, and fell on her, she got mad and attacked me." Brendan said like he'd told that story a million times.
May smilled, "Oh wow, you're pretty clumsy."
"Hey! You tripped too!" Brendan said pouting.
"Aw, Brendy having a fit?" Misty asked like he was a baby and she pinched his cheek.
"Okay everyone! Welcome to the new school year! I will be your homeroom teacher all year, my name is Ms. Liger. We should begin with the morning news, and let's get to know each other after!" said the teacher. She was really perky. Everyone faced front, ready for the morning class.
The bell rang.
"I'll see you guys later then!" May said as the group had parted ways for there next classes. She found her locker, surrounded by a group of girls who all wore red and white striped shirts. They were taking that whole mourning thing really hardcore.
Drew came out of his class, and he saw her. He saw the girl that was stuck in his head for the past month, the one that stuck out like a sore thumb since she wasn't wearing stripes. He was waiting for the gull to talk to her again after all this time. And finally he was ready, "Hey! You, with the blue eyes!" May looked around, but hadn't noticed Drew since he was caught by his friends and set aside.
"Hey, Drew. We're going to Maple's after school. Gonna join us?" Gary asked.
Drew noticed May was walking away from her locker by then and sighed, "Yeah. Whatever."
Authors Note: Hey, Hey, Hey guys! I'm back with another Contestshipping story! I would really appreciate it if you gave me a review on how you think the story is going so far and any tips you might have to make it better. But, if you don't review that's okay too. Okay, I hope you have a nice day. (:
Update: 4-10-13. Added a few things like, more friend interaction and more about Barry. Also, I tried to make it less awkward. Hopefully it worked, but if it didn't, sorry about that, I hope you enjoyed the changes. :D