This one time at Summer Camp
Ash walked down the hall with stride, the young boy never felt so much excitement in his life before. For this will be the first time he gets to interact with pokemons. He have always heard wonderful stories from his mother but never actually got the chance to experience it firsthand.
Another shiver of excitement jolted down his spine as he looked at the time, in mere moments Professor Oak would announce the beginning ceremony of Pokemon Camp. And maybe just maybe he can perhaps keep a pokemon after his 2 weeks here? Not probable but Ash hoped it to be true regardless.
"Mommy… please…" a young girl's voice hiccupped.
Ash jolted upwards as he rewind his steps, peeking out from the corner of the hallway he notice a girl around the same age as he was. She had long puffy dirty blonde hair, skin of a creamy complexion and tears streaming down from her crystal blue eyes. Ash gulped at the sight, she was beautiful; he never had such a thought before he mused. But then again he never saw a girl his age that was beautiful. Shaking himself clean of the hazy trance the girl put him in; he walked up to her and for the first time nervousness was evident in his steps.
"I'll try…" she sniffed, hanging up the phone. Silently sobbing she crouched down next to the telephone stand.
"Hey what's wrong?" Ash asked trying his best to muster his usual confidence.
"Huh…?" the blonde girl sniffed a bit, cocking her head upwards she saw a black haired boy with unkempt bed hair wearing a toothy grin.
"Why are you crying?" Ash blinked, staring at her with interest. When their eyes met Ash felt his heart skip a beat, awestruck by the rich blue hue of her cerulean orbs.
'Weird.' He thought, he actually felt somewhat nervous in the presence of this girl. It wasn't even the same nervousness like if he was in trouble with his mom. It was different, a feeling Ash has yet to correctly grasp the meaning of.
Time seemed to slow down for the young girl. She kept blinking, cautiously but curiously staring back at the black haired boy, stupefied that someone who wasn't an adult was actually worried about her.
"I-I um don't want to be here." She replied with a sniff, rubbing her tear stained face.
"Huh why not?" feeling his jaw drop, eyes wide. Why would anyone not want to be at Pokemon Summer Camp? He thought with bewilderment.
"I don't know… I'm scared I guess…" she said, hating herself for appearing to be a scaredy-cat, more importantly hating that she admitted to it.
"Don't be! We can be friends, and then you won't have to be scared!" Ash exclaimed, his usual confidence returning to him, extending his hand out to the timid girl.
The girl blinked stupidly a couple times, before slowly accepting his handshake. "I'm Serena…" however she doubted he heard her whispery voice, inwardly wincing at her own shyness.
"I guess we should be going to the stage if we don't wanna be late." His friendly smile caused Serena's heart to twinge and before she noticed, she returned his gesture with a small smile of her own.
She gave a small nod, not knowing what to say and not wanting to say anything, she felt scared that if she blubbered the wrong thing Ash would not be as friendly to her as he was now.
"I like that straw hat by the way, it looks nice on you."
Serena felt her face heating up at his compliment; the casual tone of voice he used didn't help either.
"R-really? Thank you." She felt herself stupidly stutter. Mentally scolding herself for acting so shy from just one compliment.
"I picked it out myself." She added; a hint of pink etched on her cheeks.
"Hey we're here!"
Pouting, Serena realized that Ash wasn't even listening to her anymore.
"Oh Ash you're finally here." Professor Oak greeted with a hefty grin. "And what's your name?"
"Serena." She meekly replied. Looking down to her toes, staring at nothing in particular. She still wasn't accustomed to staying at another region without her parents for two weeks.
"Okay then, hello Serena come right this way, we're about to begin." The professor ushered the two over to the rest of the kids who all sat on the rows of chairs.
Serena zoned out on most of the announcement, her eyes kept wandering towards the boy sitting next to her. His enthusiastic grin was baffling, how can someone be that excited over camp? She made a mental note to ask him about it later.
"Huh?" Serena muttered, glancing around she saw everyone moving from their seats and running out into the forest.
"C'mon Serena let's go!"
Serena couldn't help but be affected by Ash's enthusiasm, before she even realized it she found herself giving a cheerful smile herself. "Right."
"Aren't you excited? We get to see pokemon!"
"Huh? What?" her big round eyes widened even larger upon hearing the word pokemon. She was afraid of those creatures, sure they look cute but she was afraid of getting hurt by one.
"Alright we're doing a pokemon search game! How about I go over to that side of the trees and you go over to the river?"
Serena inwardly shuddered in fear thinking that she had to most likely interact with a pokemon, but gazing at the young boy's determined eyes made her nod with a smile.
"Alright! Let's go!" Ash exclaimed excitedly running off into the distant trees.
"Waaaiit!" Serena felt herself moan in complaint, she had no sense of directions in the wilderness and more importantly she was a city girl, she hated the outdoors! But he was already gone.
She wasn't even in the mood to pout; Serena was too busy glancing around, fear and nervousness etched on her cerulean orbs.
Serena hummed a tune, a tune her mother would hum to her when she woke up at night from a nightmare. It helped her keep calm however it didn't help ease her tension any better. She was alone. In the wild, no adults, no fellow campers in sight… a forest filled with pokemon. The severity of her current situation slowly but agonizingly dawned on her.
A Butterfree buzzed and flew out, scaring the young girl senseless. Jumping backwards she heard the leaves of a tree rustled and several Beedrills flew out. Serena wanted to scream or cry for help but that wouldn't be ladylike, her mother taught her better she thought. So instead she just ran, closing her eyes she ran as far as her slim legs would take her. It didn't matter she was getting deeper into the forest, that she would most likely leave the campsite; she just didn't want to be anywhere but there.
Finally tired out from her long run, she glanced around, quickly and nervously. Fear clearly evident in her eyes.
"Where did you all go?" calling out to no one in particular. Gulping she heard a rustling noise in some nearby bushes.
And before she knew what happened a blue ball like pokemon jumped out scaring the day lights out of the small girl. She felt herself jump back from fear. In a flash she found herself tripping over her own clumsy steps, scraping her knee in the process.
"Oww…" she muttered, tears threatening to escape her eyes, the pain was unbearable. But she was brave she convinced herself remembering the pep talk her mother gave her over the phone earlier. "I knew I didn't want to come to camp…" she felt herself say and before she knew it tears escaped her eyes. Crying out for her mom Serena wished she was there to protect and guide her. The shrubs rustled a bit more sending a chill of fear down her spine, clenching her eyes shut she braced herself for an attack.
"Poliwag?" a voice called out.
That voice, it's the voice of that boy earlier, recalling the events earlier and how she even ended up here in the first place.
"Hey are you alright?" Ash asked walking over to inspect the small girl who appeared to have scrapped her knee pretty badly.
"I'm Ash!" the boy greeted, remembering that he didn't properly give the girl his name earlier.
"I hurt my leg…" feeling herself losing control over her voice, it came out an octave higher than she would have liked.
"Don't worry, see this? This will make it better!" Ash enthused with a smile, taking out a small white handkerchief.
Gazing at the boy with curious eyes, she observed him tying a knot over her injury, wondering to herself how that would actually ease the pain. Her question was quickly answered when it didn't.
"All done!" he still said enthusiastically.
"Now watch this, feel better, feel better right away!"
Maybe it did work; maybe it'll ease the pain if she tried moving she thought. But it only hurt even more when she tried, she found herself wincing at the sharp pain as she slumped back into the ground.
"It still hurts, I can't move my leg…" she whimpered.
Eyes wide, she noticed the boy now stood tall with his hand extended forward. "Don't give up till it's over, kay? C'mon!" he cheered with a hefty smile.
She studied him for a bit, his words of encouragement really resonated with her. She had always been someone to give up easily, recalling how her mom would scold her for being spoiled and how easily she would give up on almost anything. Maybe that's why she feels so helpless when she's alone; she gives up so easily, waiting for everything to be done for her. If her mother was here, she would have been carried to her bed. But this is different she had to work for it herself.
Does this young boy even know he taught her such a valuable lesson? she wondered, admiration evident in her eyes.
Taking his hand, she felt herself being pulled up by his strong grip, accidentally pulled into a hug. Feeling his warm arm around her shoulder brought a faint blush, quickly she pushed herself off, gazing at his enthusiastic features with amazement. No one had shown her such kindness before. Being sheltered and shy would explain the little friends she had and the said friends never shown such kindness to her.
"There ya go, I think we should be going back to the campsite!" giving her a toothy grin. The young girl still studying him with admiration, feeling him guiding her with his hand only served to make her heart twinge with an indescribable fulfillment of joy, though she wasn't sure why.