As the Johto Grand Festival nears, the pressure was on for young coordinator May Maple while she prepared her pokemon for their upcoming battle. She was currently competing in the Goldenrod City Contest with hopes of winning her 4th ribbon. Just like the other regions, a coordinator needs 5 normal contest wins to enter the Grand Festival, and while she was making progress, she couldn't help but fret over the fact that Solidad, Harley, and Drew were all one ribbon ahead of her. This contest was her opportunity to even the score between her and her rivals. However, luck did not seem to be on her side lately. Her attempts of winning another prized ribbon for her collection have all ended in miserable failures. During the contest in Azalea Town, her adorable Squirtle had evolved right before entering the appeal round. She closed her eyes and frowned, leaning back against the bench in remembrance of that day.
- ~Flashback~ -
May stood backstage with her Squirtle, nervously awaiting her turn to show off her pokemon. Drew and his Butterfree had just pulled off a perfect combination and received the highest score of the day. With a flick of his hair, he thanked the audience and his stunning partner before returning it to its pokeball.
"Oh with all of these famous coordinators competing in the same contests why do we even bother to enter?"asked an agitated trainer who was obviously upset that his performance hadn't gone so well.
He then proceeded to kick the nearest object in sight... which happened to be May's Squirtle.
"Sqquuuuiirtttle!" the poor pokemon yelled as it curled up into its shell and was launched across the room.
With a loud crash, Squirtle hit the wall and fell to the ground. The room was silent when the creature didn't stir.
May ran to her injured friend as tears started to form in the corners of her eyes, "Squirtle please get up."
Drew strolled into the room with his head held high. The young coordinator radiated confidence and quietly smirked to himself as he mentally prepared to brag to May about Butterfree's beautiful appeal. It was too much fun teasing the childish girl. However, he quickly lost his train of thought and covered his eyes when a bright light flooded the room, leaving him momentarily stunned.
May looked to her pokemon. "Wha- What's going on?"
Squirtle began to change shape and as the light faded, it was obvious to all the contestants that the wrongfully assaulted creature had evolved into a brand new Wartortle.
"Wartortle War!" the pokemon cheered as it jumped towards its trainer and comforted her in a hug.
The confusion left May's face and was soon replaced with a grin of both relief and pride. "I'm so happy you're okay, and your new evolution is awesome Squir- I mean Wartortle! Now have a short rest before going on stage." With that she returned the creature to its pokeball.
As the commotion settled down, the coordinators all went back to minding their own business. Well, almost all of the coordinators.
"Just because your pokemon is stronger, don't think that you're any closer to beating me," sneered a voice from behind.
May crossed her arms and stuck out her tongue at her chartreuse haired rival. "Just you wait Drew, Wartortle and I will get a perfect score in our round!"
"Wait May, are you serious? You can't use Wartortle now. You should definitely switch to a different pokemon," he began to reason before getting cut off.
The girl moved closer to get into his face but the boy was caught off-guard by their close proximity and stumbled backwards. She threw out her arms in anger, "No way! You're just trying to get me to mess up so you can win! Squi- Wartortle and I have been training for this battle since we lost to you in the last contest! You just realize now that we're strong enough to leave you in the dust."
"No that's not it! You need practice first! When pokemon evolve they usually learn-"
"Shut up! I'm trying to celebrate my new pokemon and you just can't let me be happy can you?" With flashes of frustration, her sapphire eyes forcefully glowered into his wincing emerald ones.
"May, I-" The two trainers quickly looked away from each other and up to the screen as they heard the next announcement.
"Next up, all the way from Petalburg city, is none other than May Maple!" chanted the voice of the enthusiastic MC.
Cheers could be heard from the stadium, but they certainly didn't reflect the tense atmosphere as May and Drew had yet to make up from their fight. He shot her a curious glance to see what decision she would make. However, it went unnoticed since she already turned around and began jogging to the stage entrance.
"We'll just have to give Drew a reason to be scared," she thought before hurling a pokeball into the air above her.
"Wartortle, take the stage!"
Along with a multitude of blue and purple bubbles, Wartortle appeared out of the pokeball and did a quick spin before it came to a graceful landing. "Wartortle!"
May began to holler orders as the duo introduced their appeal, "Use ice beam to freeze the ground in front of you."
The pokemon obeyed with ease and eagerly awaited the girl's next command.
"Now turn around and use water gun at the wall behind you so you'll be propelled across the ice." Wartortle opened its mouth to perform the move but unfortunately no water appeared. Instead, a stream of water was released from the pokemon's glowing tail. Due to the misdirection of the attack, Wartortle was projected 15 feet into the air rather than across the ice. When the creature landed, it couldn't keep its balance and slid on the ice and fainted, thus ending the round.
The whole audience was left stunned and not one person dared to make a sound. May just stared at the disaster in front of her until the MC spoke and broke her from her trance. "It appears that the contestant and her pokemon were unable to properly communicate. Rather than use a water gun attack, her Wartortle used aqua tail and messed up the routine. Perhaps after more training the two will be able to show us a stunning performance." Embarrassed, May looked down so that her bangs cast a shadow over her eyes. She heard the whispers from the crowd as she returned Wartortle to its pokeball.
"Wow I used to be a really big fan of May but lately she seems to be getting worse and worse."
"It's like she isn't even trying anymore."
"She was so good back when she competed in Hoenn and Kanto."
"Ever since she got to the Johto region it seems like she just lost all of her talent."
Unable to handle the negative feedback, the distraught girl turned her back on audience. A single tear rolled down her cheek before she took off in a sprint to get away from the spotlight. Even her fellow contestants back stage were all transfixed on the screen in disbelief of what they just witnessed. Only one person had even noticed when she returned to the waiting room, and that was because she had accidentally bumped past him on her way out door. Lips pursed with uneasiness, Drew's gaze followed the girl's retreating form before subconsciously starting to chase after her.
"This is what she gets for not listening to me. I was actually trying to be nice and give her advice but she wouldn't let me finish explaining. It's like she always expects me to be a jerk... I sure hope that's not the case," Drew silently attempted to comprehend the situation at hand while running. He continued to follow May out of the hall and up the grassy hill behind the profusely crowded building. Once reaching the middle of the hill, he slowed his pace to prevent startling her when he arrived at the top. After a few more steps, the girl's quivering form could be seen resting atop a flat rock. Although Drew's ability to turn a conversation his direction had never failed to get a rise from May, he still lacked the skill to calm her down from a more unsettling situation. That didn't mean he wouldn't try.
In order to alert her to his presence, he reached out a hand and gently placed it on her shoulder. The shaking momentarily stopped as the girl's body froze with uncertainty. After a moment she realized only one person at this contest would have chased her all this way. However, Drew was the last person she wanted to talk to right now. A deep sigh resonated through the air as she prepared to confront him.
"Leave me alone," she murmured before leaning away from his touch.
Ignoring her request, he walked around to the front of the rock and sat down next to her. She slowly shifted her position so her back was towards him. He waited to see if she had anything else to say before he started.
"Look at me," he demanded.
No response.
"... May, please look at me." His quiet voice was different without its normal arrogant inflection, and this captured May's attention. Expecting to hear a snide remark about how he was right, she was caught off guard by his tenderness and gave into his pleading. She turned to face his direction and her sorrowful, sapphire eyes looked up to see his soft, emerald ones boring down into hers. Sure his eyes revealed his usual determination and spark, but she noticed something new. Was he genuinely concerned? Before she could mutter out some useless comment to break the tension, Drew leaned in and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. He swiftly pulled her closer until her body rested against his. May's face reddened at this unexpected reaction from Drew, yet she didn't attempt to force her way out of his warm embrace. Although a soothing breeze rustled the couple, the world around them had seemed to disappear. They sat like this for a few moments before May mumbled some inaudible words into his sleeve.
Realizing her words had gone unheard, she let go and looked to the ground repeating, "I'm sorry Drew."
The boy chuckled before responding, "May don't be sorry to me, don't be sorry to the audience, and don't be sorry to yourself. So what? You made a mistake? Everyone does! But rather than sulking about it and feeling sorry, you should move on from this mess up and learn something from it. That way when you try again you'll be even wiser than the last time. It's all a part of the experience."
When Drew began his speech, May had looked up to focus on his words. After he was done talking, he flashed her a genuine smile rather than just his trademark smirk. (Although he inwardly smirked to himself for managing to find the right words to say. It was a proud moment for him.) She couldn't help but smile in return. Since she was still recovering from her upset, she could only manage a small thank you in response.
Naturally, May hadn't made it past the appeal round in that contest. But instead of running away, she stayed to support Drew who ended up winning his 4th ribbon that day.
She leaned forward from her seat and sighed in content. She thought to herself, "Drew definitely deserved that win. He was amazing that day." However, she quickly realized she spent the last five minutes thinking about him rather than her pokemon. A subtle blush took over her cheeks as she mentally scolded herself for letting him distract her, yet she remembered the feeling of his arms around her and shivered at the sensation.
She looked up to the screen to check up on his battle to another one of her toughest rivals, Solidad. Harley was also competing, but he was currently waiting on deck in the hallway for his battle coming up next.
"Roserade, dodge and follow up with magical leaf! Absol use razor wind to increase the force of the leaves!" Drew's voice commanded from the television.
Solidad countered, "Not so fast! Lapras use ice beam and then sheer cold to finish them off!"
The leaves were instantly frozen on the spot and a chilling air quickly approached the two exhausted pokemon on the other side of them. Unable to react in time, they were both frozen solid and could no longer attack. The buzzer sounded and the battle had come to a finish. Solidad still had half her points while Drew's were nearly depleted.
"And the winner is, Solidad from Pewter City! Congrats, you're moving onto the semi-final round!" The MC boomed as the audience cheered.
Drew approached the older girl with a sad smirk plastered on his face. He held out his hand to shake hers nevertheless. "Good job," he had complimented.
"It was a tough battle Drew!" she encouraged.
He started to head backstage while Solidad received further praise from the judges. On his way back he ran into a certain purple haired trainer we all know and love.
"Drewsie darling! It's a shame that you're out this early on in the contest! I guess you aren't as good as you used to be," Harley taunted.
At first, Drew had furrowed his eyebrows and sent the enthusiastic coordinator a menacing glare, but a sudden thought lightened his mood and he returned to his normal arrogant self. "Just wait until you have to face her Harley." Drew turned to walk away after only receiving a quiet whimper in response to his comeback.
Since it was Harley's turn to battle, that meant that May was now waiting outside the stage for her turn when he finished. She was supposed to enter from the opposite side though, so she hadn't run into the two boys, and she was quite thankful for that. Since she didn't make it to the second round last contest, she was more nervous than usual to get back to battling. Either one of her rivals might have made a comment that would screw with her head right before getting on stage.
Back in the waiting room, Drew had decided to skip out on watching Harley's performance and relax on one of the benches. When he looked down to the seat he spotted something unusual. An unattended pokeball lies forgotten on the ground and he rolled his eyes at the thought of a trainer clumsy enough to lose one of his or her own pokemon. It was then that he remembered talking with May earlier as she sat on this exact bench. He mentally face-palmed as he bent over to retrieve the ball. He took off in the direction of the stage where May awaited her turn.
The girl leaned against the wall in silence as she reviewed her strategies for the up coming battle. Her almost meditative pose reflected her inner feelings of peace, feelings which she rarely experienced since arriving in Johto. At least she did feel peace, until she noticed Drew rushing towards her as quickly as possible. Confused by the situation, her face flushed at the ideas of what he could possibly have to tell her with this much urgency.
She straightened out her body and held an arm up to her chest. "Drew...?" she questioned his motives with eagerness.
"Are you an idiot!"
"..." She blinked a couple times.
Suddenly ripped out of her daydream, she screamed back, "You came out here right before my battle just to tell me I'm an idiot? After how sweet you acted at the last contest I thought that maybe you were going be less of a jerk to me but I see some things don't change! I don't know why I'm even friends with you Drew!"
"You're lucky that we're friends or else you would have completely blown your chances for this contest just like you did the last one! Have you checked your pokemon before going on stage?" he retorted while ignoring her ignorant remarks.
"What? Of course I have! They're right- Oh my God! Where is my Blaziken!" she frantically searched her pockets as she noticed Drew open up his hand towards her. "Is that mine?"
"Yes, I found it under the bench you sat in earlier."
"Oh," was all she could say as she reached out and retrieved the pokeball from Drew.
"Seriously May, what had you so distracted that you didn't even notice you dropped your Blaziken's pokeball?" he prodded with a concerned interest.
A wild blush widened across her face as she recalled what did have her distracted. She quickly turned away from the boy in order to hide her embarrassment. "I can't tell Drew I was thinking about him when I lost my pokemon. He'll never let me hear the end of it." she decided to herself. Desperately, she searched in front of her for any kind of excuse when she laid eyes on a set of silver...
"TRASH CANS!" May responded, proud of herself for coming up with an answer fast enough to hide the suspicion, or so she thought.
"...Trash cans? You were thinking about trash cans?" Drew sent an accusing look her direction. He knew she was ashamed of something if she had created a cover story as bad as this one.
"Uhhhhh yep! I was just thinking, they should make edible trash cans! I mean after you get rid of the trash bags then bam! Useless piece of junk! So if we can eat all the wasted trash cans then it will put a stop to world hunger!" she beamed. She thought about it after finishing, "Actually that's not a bad idea."
"You can reuse trash cans every time you need to throw garbage away," he smirked at her failed explanation.
"Right, I didn't think of that! Ah ha ha haaaa," she laughed quietly to herself while looking away from him towards the ground.
Drew's inquisitive eyes switched to give her a knowing glance before a different voice interrupted the pointless conversation between the two coordinators, "Congrats Harley! You'll be advancing to the semi-final round along with Solidad! Let's hear it for Harley!" The crowd roared with excitement in support.
May turned back to look at Drew, "Well I have to get ready to go out on stage. See you after I win!"
He momentarily thought about arguing her last statement, but instead he turned around to leave and lifted his hand in acknowledgment. He paused, however, and confessed, "I find myself getting easily distracted by you too May."
Author's Note:
So thanks for reading guys! This is actually my first attempt at a story so all types of reviews welcome! Especially those offering advice!
The story as a whole will be a few chapters and will hopefully explain those details of the contest that the anime didn't give us.
Expect a whole lot of contestshipping, and we'll see if anything else gets thrown in there!
I'll try to update as soon as possible... hahah that is if you want me to(:
Oh and I know most people put this at the top, but I didn't want to take away from the story:
Disclaimer: Hey I don't own Pokemon or the characters!