A/N: So I got into a pokemon inspired mood with the new release of Black and White, which I don't have yet (tears), but anyways, long memories of my rabid, Pokemon obsessed love came hurtling back at me, and I really, really wanted to write a fanfiction for it. So voila! this is it. I probably used every cliche in the book, but I'm enjoying myself nonetheless, and I hope that you'll enjoy it too. It is my first Pokemon fanfiction, so I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing... (haha, bet that inspires a lot of confidence in you)
Summary: May and Dawn start at the fairly new, extremely prestigious high school with students from all four regions, and along the way, discover things about themselves that they never knew and form relationships with people they never expected. Ash and Misty struggle with expressing their feelings towards each other while dealing with a complication, and basically, it's what would happen if the Pokemon world had a super-elite academy for trainers, breeders, and coordinators. Expect plenty of cameos, hijinks, crazy things in general...
Yeah...I don't own Pokemon
On with the show:
Ch. 1
"Wow…this place is amazing!" May thought as she looked around the school, which was almost devoid of people.
Nervous as she was for her first day of school, she made sure that she had packed everything the night before and ironed her uniform. She woke up as her Chatot alarm started singing, and in a mad, frantic rush, thinking she was late, hurriedly took a shower, combed her hair and tied it back with her favorite bandana, shoved a piece of toast in her mouth, and went flying out the door. It wasn't until that she was already here, standing on the front steps when she realized she set her alarm extra early so she could prepare for the first day, and consequently in her rush arrived at school an hour early.
"It would happen to me, wouldn't it?" she thought miserably.
But she wasn't the type of person to stay upset for too long, and she brightened up as she looked toward the sun. It was a brand, new day— sure she was nervous, but what could go wrong?
"Well, at least now I'll have plenty of time to find my dorm room and classes," she remarked cheerfully.
She probably needed it. Just from the size of the entrance, she could tell that it was probably at least four times larger than her last school, and based on the imposing marble columns, it was probably a whole lot nicer too. Save for its cleanliness, it looked more like an ancient ruin than her new high school. She had to crane her head upwards to look at the motto, a Pokeball between all four regions, with a winged pokemon that looked like a Charizard or Dragonite in the background.
"Wow…Mom and Dad weren't kidding when they said it was the best school in the region, it looks huge! I hope I find all my classes okay…I wonder what the people will be like, I hope I can find someone I know in here...Maybe I should fix my hair, it probably doesn't look that great since I left in such a rush this morning, but I don't think I brought my comb with me…"
WHAM!
Lost in her thoughts and startled at the unexpected contact, she stumbled forward, almost losing her balance but managing to right herself in the end.
"The Entrance is for walking in you nitwit, not staring at," a boy with green hair retorted as he pushed past her.
"Hey- wait!" she cried, having gotten over her initial shock, "Aren't you going to apologize?"
But the boy had already gone inside the doors, and as more people had arrived at the school by this time, a couple of students snickered unpleasantly or had turned at her loud outburst. Uncomfortable with the sudden attention, she strode into the school, muttering about the rudeness of some people.
"That jerk! He couldn't have just said I'm sorry or Are you okay? like any normal, polite person would think of doing…"
"Hmph, I hope I don't ever see him again…"
Once she was inside the school, May was utterly bemused. Having learned her lesson from today's earlier incident, she leaned on the wall of the hallway, out of the center and anybody's way as she drew contradicting pathways on her well-worn paper map.
"If I go here, make a right here, turn left, go out onto the fields…no wait, that leads me to the stadium, the dorm rooms are on this side of the field, but that means…"She gasped as she ripped a line through the creased paper.
"Aaarggh…if only Max was here, he's so much better with directions than I am…" she moaned. This school was so big! It was more of a mansion for pete's sake—how was anyone supposed to find their way around here anyways?
Maybe she should try asking for help? Hopefully not everybody at this school was as rude as the green-haired kid she bumped into and would be helpful enough to show her where the dorms were; she was getting tired of dragging her luggage through the halls.
There! She spotted a blue-haired girl with a Piplup and two large suitcases.
She tapped her on the shoulder. "Umm, excuse me, I'm new around here—Do you know which way I should go to go to Dorm—" she scanned her schedule briefly, "—Magikarp?"
"Oh wow, I was just going to ask you the same question!" the girl smiled bashfully.
"Are you new too?" she asked hopefully.
"Yep! I used to go to the high school in Twinleaf town, where I live, but my mom decided that for rest of my years of high school, I needed the best education I could get, and she heard about this program from a couple of friends of mine, so she sent me here, and now I can't even find the nearest bathroom, let alone my dorm room!"
May laughed. "I know what you mean, this place is so big! And it doesn't help that all these hallways merge into each other and lead outside—they should put up signs or something!"
"Piplup, Piplup, Pip-Pi"
"Look, I think Piplup's agreeing with you!"
She always had a soft spot for cute pokemon, regardless of what Max argued about strong pokemon. "Aww…he' so cute. He must be tired from walking all around this place too!"
As if to agree with her, Piplup nodded his head up and down, and looked smugly up at its trainer, clearly giving a "She's right, can I ride on your shoulder?" look.
"Piplup-Pi!"
"No, Piplup! You already rode on my shoulder when we came here today, and you're going to get lazy and fat if you don't start walking by yourself!"
"Piplup, Piplup pi piplup pi pi!" Piplup squawked indignantly.
"You can walk yourself or go back in your pokeball—Come on, Piplup!"
May giggled. It was fun watching Dawn and her pokemon argue. From the way they positioned themselves around each other and their playful bantering, she could tell that they obviously had a good bond with each other.
Piplup reminded her of Torchic, not only appearance, but also in personality, although she didn't think Torchic was as proud or argumentative…
It seemed that they worked out an agreement because the girl faced her again, and held out a hand, which after staring blankly at for a second, May shook back.
"Yeah, sorry about that, my name's Dawn."
"No problem, I'm May."
"Well I'm glad that I'll have a friend on my first day of school" Wow…She already considers us friends? —Wow! Look at the time! May, we really should find someone to take us to Magikarp, before we miss orientation or something," Dawn said excitedly, as May began to realize what a high energy person she was.
"Umm…who are we going to ask—"
"Hey, you guys need help finding your way to the dorms?" A boy tapped Dawn on the shoulder. He was medium height, with a worn red hat over spiky black hair and as May privately thought, looked kind of cute in a little-kid way, which was weird as he was about a head taller than she was… He had a Pikachu on his shoulder, who jumped down and sniffed the air excitedly.
"Pika-pi!"
"ASH KETCHUM! YOU CAN'T FOOL ME WITH THAT INNOCENT LITTLE ACT OF YOURS—GET BACK OVER HERE –"
Shocked, May jumped about twenty feet and knocked into Piplup, who squawked in protest and hit Dawn, who yelped in surprise and nearly toppled over the boy, who had somehow crouched behind Dawn, with a panicked expression on his face. His Pikachu, however, brightened up happily as he scampered across the hallway.
"NOW THAT'S TWO BIKES YOU OWE ME FOR YOU BIG LUG—YOU STILL HAVEN'T EVEN PAID ME BACK FOR THE LAST ONE, AND DON'T EVEN TRY BLAMING IT ON RITCHIE—" A girl with flashing cereulean eyes adn bright red hair tied back into a spiky ponytail, stormed down the hallway towards them while the guy backed up nervously with his palms out in front of him, like a bullfighter.
"H-H-Hey Misty…"
"Don't you "Hey, Misty" me, you FRIED my bike! How am I supposed to get around Campus now?" The girl crossed her arms together and her eyebrows furrowed into a dangerous-looking scowl, not unlike the one a rampaging Gyrados would have. From her expression, May wouldn't have been surprised if she suddenly started breathing fire.
"Look, I'm sorry! Me and Ritchie were having a battle with Pikachu to see which one had the strongest thunderbolt, once and for all, and I'll have you know that Pikachu won! It's just that I got Pikachu to use Charge on Practice Field #1 and, "he peeked a glance at her expressions to see if it had changed. If it was any stonier, it would've fossilized him. "it kind of hit Sparky's Thunderbolt and it exploded-and-accidently-wentandhityourbike…"
"So technically, it wasn't ENTIRELY my fault…"
"I DON'T CARE, THAT'S TWO YOU HAVE TO PAY UP FOR—"
"No it isn't! I paid you back for that bike a year ago!"
"You paid me in Game Corner Credits which are NONREFUNDABLE!"
"So? It's worth the same amount as your bike was, and it was all I had at the time!"
"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO PAY FOR A NEW BIKE WITH ARCADE GAME CREDITS!"
As the black-haired boy and the red head's bickering quickly detoriated into a shouting match, May and Dawn both looked on puzzledly at the pair, hesitating between intervening or letting the argument take its due course. Around them, students went on walking in the walls, seemingly unconcerned with the maelstrom that was Ash and Misty.
"Pika-pi-pi-Pikachu?" The little yellow mouse pokemon looked up at the girl remorsefully.
"Pikachu, you traitor!"
Her expression softened as she scooped Pikachu into her arms. "Don't worry Pikachu, it wasn't your fault, I don't blame you at all," she cooed softly, then glared daggers at his trainer. "You, on the other hand…"
He sweatdropped. "Hey, Misty, look, it's new students. They need help finding their way to Magikarp. I was going to take them there, but now that you're here…" he looked pleadingly at them.
Catching the hint and feeling that now was as good a time to intervene as any, May quickly shook Dawn out of her daze and introduced herself.
"Hi, I'm May."
"And I'm Dawn!"
"You wouldn't happen to know where the dormitories are, would you?"
It seemed his gambit worked. The red headed girl smiled kindly, a completely opposite expression from the one she wore a couple of minutes ago. "Yeah, me and Ash here," she pointed scathingly at the boy, "were students here last year. Dorms are in this direction, I'll show you two the way. You need some help with your bags?"
Jokingly, Dawn threw her hands to the air and cried "Hallelujah!"
"If it's not too much of a bother with you…?" May inquired.
"Sure, just dump all your bags over there with Ash."
"What? No!"
"Erm…it's okay, I can carry them by myself."
"Oh, hey , you probably don't have a clue who we are, we never introduced ourselves." The red haired girl pointed to herself. "I'm Misty, and you probably know by now, that idiot over there," she pointed at the boy.
"Hey!"
"—is Ash Ketchum, and we're both sophomores."
"So am I!"
"Me too!"
"Really? That's great," Ash interjected. "What classes do you guys have—"
Much to the surprise (not) of May and Dawn, Misty nearly dragged him by the arm, cutting him off short. It was clear, well at least to May anyways, on who held the Pokeball in this relationship…
"We'll have to talk about classes later, on the way to the dorms, or else we might not make it back in time," interrupted Misty, and with that, the three girls set off, with Ash in tow and with Pikachu and Piplup scampering beside them.
"…So it's really not that bad, once you understand that all the primary classrooms and dorms are linked in this middle quad, and secondary classes and practice fields and stadiums are located just beyond here, in this outer ring…" Misty explained to a rapt Dawn and May, as she led them down the stairs onto the vast green lawns where various students and their Pokemon were milling about.
"Ahhh", May thought cheerfully, "It makes so much more sense when she puts it that way…"
"There are so many of them though! Can you imagine what it'd be like being a janitor at this school and working on all of them?" Dawn exclaimed.
"Life would suck big time," Ash chuckled, and May voiced her agreement.
"Lucky for you and all the janitors though, they're all maintained by state-of-the-art battle terrain systems, so it's all electronically controlled by IT; all the janitors really have to do is check the wires underneath to make sure that everything moves okay," Misty explained.
"Really?"
"Come on, Ash, you didn't know that?"
"Well, the fields always look the same, how am I supposed to tell the difference if some rock was moved there by some machine or a person?"
"It's called being observant and paying attention"
"What?" Ash remarked vaguely, eye caught on a Charmeleon performing a strong flamethrower.
Misty rolled her eyes. "Exactly my point," and Dawn and May both laughed.
They were walking across a field now, towards a set of buildings in the distance and everywhere May looked, she could see people with their Pokemon. There were so many of them, she had to work to avoid hitting any passerbys or Ash with her suitcase.
For about the fifth time that day, May thought," Is this really my high school?"
Right ahead of her, Misty and Dawn were having the same problems.
"There are so many more new people this year. Four Points was already pretty large before this, but now that they've increased the quotas from some of the regions farther away like Sinnoh or Hoenn, so more people are able to come," Misty commented airily. "It's probably where you guys are from too, right?"
"Yeah, I'm from Twinleaf Town, in Sinnoh" said Dawn
"And I'm from Petalburg City, in Hoenn," said May.
"Me and Ash are both from the Kanto region, like most people here, although there are a lot of people from Johto as well. There aren't a whole lot of people from Hoenn or Sinnoh, but there'll probably be more starting from this year." Misty replied, "It really is the best school in all four regions, so we're all pretty lucky to be here…"
"Yeah, that entrance exam was killer—to be honest, I wasn't even sure that I was going to make it through all of it, let alone pass and get and into the school," May rubbed her head subconsciously, remembering the pain she felt for those 6 hours…
Dawn was having a similar reaction, "I know, right?"
"Hey, that reminds me," Ash piped up, "we still have to exchange schedules and everything!"
"Erm…wait one second, mine's still in this bag here," May said as she rummaged around in her red bag, knocking some pokeballs from their place.
"Got it!" she exclaimed happily, as she gave hers to Ash and received Dawn's, as they passed their schedules around in a circle.
"Aww…we only have Math and Health together…"
"Hey, May! We have history, Math, and Pokecare together!"
"What? No way, we're in all the same classes except for Advanced Training?"
"It looks like we'll all have lunch together too!"
"May," Ash called out as he scrutinized her schedule, a peculiar expression on his face. "Did you not pick a specialty field to work in?"
"Huh? What's that?" she looked blankly.
"You know, they're the classes that you take for electives. You usually take one depending on what you want to be when you grow up or which way you want to work with Pokemon. The three categories are training, coordinating, and breeding, which is practically everything else."
"Here let me see," Misty motioned for Ash to hand over May's schedule, which he did, and then scanned it herself, brows furrowing. "Hmm…for once Ash is right, you don't seem to have a specialty field, although you do have all the basic requirements of training and breeding…"
"Ohhh…" Dawn said, "so that's what those classes were for—I was pretty sure that I signed up for coordinating, so I was wondering why I had training and breeding in my schedule…"
"Yep," nodded Misty sagely, "no matter what specialty you choose, you're required to fill up your elective spaces with at least five classes of training and Pokecare per week, and if you're a Trainer or Breeder, you get double the amount, that way you know the basics of everything, along with our regular school curriculum.
"But I don't know what I want to do yet…"May cried out, biting her lip nervously.
"Pika-pi, pi, pi!"
"Pikachu's right, May. Don't stress out about it, plenty of people come here without knowing what specialty they want to choose, but eventually they find one they like from all the classes they take. All of them have great teachers and people in them, so there's something for everyone." Misty smiled to her reassuringly.
"But training's the best!" Ash crowed, while Pikachu nodded enthusiastically by him.
"Or you could always do coordinating with me!" Dawn exclaimed.
May laughed, partly reassured by their antics. "Thanks, but I think I'll wait and try my classes, and see which one I like best."
"Which is probably the smartest thing to do," Misty commented dryly as she looked at both Ash and Dawn, Ash in particular, who was chasing Pikachu around in a circle, trying to get his hat back.
…
"Well, here we are, Magikarp," Misty exclaimed proudly as she pointed toward a medium sized, white marble building with a large Magikarp flag waving at the front. "Do you guys know which room you're living in?"
"Yeah…Room 239"
"Hey, I'm in Room 239 too! We're roommates, Dawn!" May exclaimed.
"No way! You guys are both in Room 239? I'm in 238, My room is connected to yours, we can all be roommates," Misty exclaimed and all three girls squealed as they jumped up and down, ecstatic with the turn of events.
Obviously uncomfortable with the display of feminine bonding, Ash turned to leave, dumping the suitcases on the ground. "Umm…I'm gonna go back to my dorm and pick up some stuff, I'll catch you later Misty, you too Dawn and May, it was great meeting you—"
"Pika-pi!"
"Bye Ash, Bye Pikachu!"
"Thanks for all the help Ash!"
"DON'T YOU FORGET ABOUT MY BIKE!" Misty screamed down the hallway, and May giggled as she saw the now tiny figure of Ash wince.
"So", Misty smiled as she gave a mischievous wink, "Are you ready to see what your new dorms will look like?"
"Spare us the suspense, Misty, my arms are about to fall off," Dawn moaned theatrically and all three girls laughed.
Misty turned the key into the lock and with a pop, the door swung open.
May gasped.
It was…amazing! It was about as twice as large as her room back home. Half of the room was painted a light baby blue, the other half was painted in her favorite shade of pink. There were two twin-sized beds with fresh pairs of bed sheets on them, two wooden desks in the corner, and two comfortable, squishy looking chairs arranged in a circle by them. Dawn was standing next to her with a similar shell-shocked expression, and for a couple of seconds, all they could do was stare.
Then, with a shriek, May flung herself into one of the squishy chairs while Dawn made a beeline for what looked like the bathroom.
May sighed contentedly, and squished further in her chair. She could get used to school if it meant living in a room like this every day…
Misty smirked from the doorway. "Well, how do you guys like Four Points so far?"
"Oh My God!" Dawn yelled from the bathroom, "Our Bathtub is huge!"
Misty and May both laughed, and in her heart, May was looking forward to the rest of the day, the rest of the year.
I think I'm going to like it here…
The infamous bike destroying skills of Ash Ketchum XD