I do not own anything to do with Pokemon.
The only thing I only in this story is the character Meena.

This is my first contestship. I hope you like it :)

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"Venusaur, use frenzy plant!"

The earth shook and rumbled beneath the feet of pokemon co-ordinator May. She wiped the sweat off her forehead as she took a deep breath and called out once more to her pokemon. "Come on, you can do it! Just a little farther!"

The roots that sprouted from the ground as a result of May's Venusaur's frenzy plant attack peeked up from the earth, and then sunk back in. May groaned. This was a move that she had been trying to teach Venusaur for almost two weeks now. It was easy to tell that all of her hard work hadn't paid off quite yet.

"Saur, venusaur!" Venusaur noticed how stressed and disappointed its trainer looked, and held down its head in shame.

"Aw, no Venusaur, it's okay," May smiled. "You've been working yourself really hard, and I'm proud of you. It's time you get a good long rest." She called it back to its pokeball, and put it in her pokeball pouch. Well, so much for having that move down for the Ecruteak pokemon contest, thought May. The contest is in a week, and I haven't even got a combination yet!

She sat down on a large rock and put her head in her arms. Princess of Hoenn, my butt! I can't even teach my pokemon a new move!

She decided that maybe it was too early in the morning to start training. After all, they had spent hours on frenzy plant the previous night, so they barely got any rest. May had thought that it was a good idea to get up at the crack of dawn to start training. She was trying to develop new training habits, but so far, this one hasn't been working out.

Speaking of dawn… Ever since her lost to Dawn, Ash and Brock's new traveling companion, in the Wallace Cup, she had been training vigorously. If I can lose to a beginner coordinator like Dawn, she had thought, I can definitely lose to every trainer at the grand festival! She knew she was being bitter about it, but she only got like this when she wasn't in a good mood to start with. She really liked Dawn, and saw and appreciated how much talent the Sinnoh girl has, but no one said losing was easy.

Normally May was sweet about everything and wouldn't brood on the bad, but there were many things contributing to her recent bad mood. First of all, she hadn't heard from her family in weeks. She hadn't realized how much she missed her family while being away, especially Max. If she didn't hear their reassuring words and voices regularly, she got unmotivated. She loved her family with all her heart and being away from them felt like she was away from a part of herself, too.
Secondly, Drew. Drew, Drew, Drew. What was going on with that boy? He could be so strange sometimes. For example, he beat her at the last contest they participated in together. After it was done, he came up to her and told her he was sorry, even though she wasn't at all that upset. He gave her one of his signature Drew roses, but then started to act like a total jerk! She had no idea what was going on in his mind. All the mixed signals from him were becoming hard to bear. And lastly, she found out Ecruteak City's world famous Pancake Cafe had recently closed. Right when she was craving pancakes, too!

May was just losing herself in thoughts of squirting delicious maple syrup over pancakes piled high with whip cream, razz berries, belue berries, oran berries and pecha berries when a voice interrupted her thoughts.

"What's got the princess so down?"

May whirled around to see Meena, her new friend from Cherrygrove, here in Johto. She had long purple hair, which she pulled into her two signature pigtails, tied with yellow ribbons. She had dark violet eyes, a nice smile, and a sometimes sarcastic attitude. If you weren't in a bad mood, she was really quite fun to be around. Unfortunately, at the moment, May's mood was on the opposite end of earth as 'good'. Besides her smart and sarcastic nature, Meena was a great friend. In her Meena had found a great traveling companion.

"Will everyone just PLEASE stop calling me that?!"

"Jeez May, calm down." Meena plopped herself on the grass beside May. "You know I only say that because I know it bugs you."

"Mmm."

"Anyway, what's got you spouting flamethrowers left right and center so early in the morning? Someone ice beam your cereal?"

"No, and nothing." May turned away to hide how upset she really was.

"Aw come on, lighten up!" Meena slung her arm around May's shoulders. That was a good thing about Meena. If you didn't want to talk about something, she wouldn't press on for ten years like some people do. She'd respect the fact that you didn't want to talk about whatever it was the moment. "You know what day it is?" Meena pressed.

May's heart skipped a beat. Of course, she thought. How on earth could I forget? It's sad that my friend had to remind me…

"Every year on this day, Ecruteak city's Pokemon Center holds a pokemon coordinating history festival. It's kind of like an exhibit, almost, where they have statues of the most famous coordinating pokemon, and sometimes you get to meet famous coordinators too! Also, Nurse Joy gives everyone…"

May's heart sunk deeper than the Hoenn's ocean. She barely heard what Meena was going on about. Well, this is just great, she thought. Not even my friend remembers!

May slapped herself mentally for being pouty, but she knew this was the one day a year that a kid can be pouty:

Today was May's Birthday.

In all her stress and work training for the contest, she completely forgot that her birthday was coming up. Only when Meena asked if May knew what day it was did she remember. She thought Meena was going to remind her, and maybe ask if she'd like to go out for some noodles to celebrate, at the very least. But no, she had to go on about the stupid pokemon statue history festival, or whatever the heck was she was talking about.

"May? Did you hear me?"

May looked up to see Meena peering, concerned, at her face.

"Um, yeah, I did." May forced a smile on her face, though it probably came out as a grimace.

"So? Do you wanna go or are you going to pout about Arceus knows what all day?"

May sighed. There was no point in telling her it was her birthday. If she did, Meena would start to fuss about how she had forgotten and then make a huge deal out of it. That was the last thing May needed at the moment.

"Actually, Meena, I really need to work on training my Venusaur more before the next contest," May said. It's true, she thought. Anyway, I'd rather spend my 'special' day with my pokemon, May thought to herself. Maybe I'll call dad and get him to send over Beautifly and Skitty to be with me too…

"Aw, May, you have to come!"

"But-"

"You have all morning to train. This event is at 7:00 anyway."

"But I-"

"Fine, then I'll just go alone." Meena said sarcastically as she rolled her eyes.

"Aw, no, Meena, you could-"

"Then just COME!"

"You don't g-"

"It's not an offer. You're coming."

"Seriousl-"

"It's obligatory!"

"Obv-"

"There will be food!"

Silence.

Meena continued. "Fresh watmel berries, Iapapa pie, pancakes-"

"Pancakes?"

"Pancakes."

May sighed. It couldn't hurt, even if they aren't as good as the Pancake Café's. "Alright, alright, I'll come." If she couldn't have her happy day, she might as well make someone else happy.

"Yay! Thanks May, you're a pal. Meet me at the Pokemart at 6:30. You might want to shower. Bye!" Meena danced off down the path without a backwards glance.

"Wait, Meena!"

But she had already disappeared down the hills.