Hello! Thanks a lot for all the wonderful reviews! :) Aw, please, please, please wish me luck for my Math exam! If I'll get more than 9 at this exam, I'm gonna get drunk, lol.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon or any of the characters.

Ash tried in vain to stifle a huge yawn which made his jaw moan in protest. He didn't sleep too well that night for some unknown reasons and he was woken up brutally by the drawl of a cock on the job, strategically situated under his window. He practically crawled to the bathroom, the cold water that he sprayed his face with refreshing him enough to help him find his way to the bus. There, swinging back and forth at every move the bus was making, sleep hit him again. Thankfully, May and Misty were talking heatedly about something next to him, preventing him from falling asleep.

The bus arrived in the station in front of the high school and the group disbanded. Misty walked to the left on a long, dark corridor which led to the Biology/Chemistry profile classes, May ran upstairs to her English class and Ash stepped forward on a large hall with lots of flowerpots along the walls. The door of his classroom was slightly open, but there was no teacher inside. Only students; chatting, reading or playing.

Ash felt his heartbeat increase slightly as he noticed Paul, sitting in the back of the classroom just like he was sitting yesterday: head lowered and eyes fixed to the top of the desk. Something was wrong with him, since Ash was sure that his purple-haired desk mate wouldn't find anything interesting about the things written all over the top of the desk. He quickly made his way to his seat and hanged his bag upon his chair.

"Good morning!" he said quite cheerfully, even though he still felt sleepy. All he got in response were some mumbles which didn't even resemble the words "good morning to you, too."

'Man, he's really moody.' Ash thought as he sat down and got his books and notebooks out of his bag, checking his homework for the last time before the teacher came to class.

The sound of the bell was like sweet music to the ears of the tired students, who couldn't wait for a chance to get out of the overheated classrooms.

"Ash, man!" A masculine voice made Ash turn around to spot the green-haired teen.

"Drew!" The boys shook hands quickly, and then headed outside. The courtyard was large, with a lot of green spaces, benches, a soccer and a basketball field.

"How were classes today?" Drew asked. If Ash remembered correctly, he was studying in English/Foreign languages profile, just like his friend May.

"Exhausting!" Ash almost hissed. "What about yours?"

"Same…" Drew said with a grin. In elementary school, Drew had been a good student, his grades slightly better than Ash's, but the jet-black haired teenager never envied him for this. It was true that sometimes Drew could be an annoying braggart, but Ash had always been friends with him, and never thought bad of him.

"Look, it's Misty." Drew said, elbowing Ash gently in the ribs. The gesture awakened some memories inside Ash's brain, memories of a little rumor that had been circulating around the school for a good period of time, a rumor that Misty and Ash had been involved into a romantic relationship. It was plainly wrong. He never thought of her that way! He always thought of her as a friend. Nothing more.

"Hi, Ash, Drew!" she greeted them, letting her herself fall on the bench next to Ash. He took a better view of the green eyed boy before telling him with a soft voice "May is looking for you." Immediately, Drew excused himself and left the two students. Misty giggled, and Ash smiled faintly.

"May and Drew…" Misty shot him a look.

"Don't tell me you haven't seen that coming. C'mon Ash, he had been giving her flowers when they were in elementary school. Red roses, for god's sake." She said with a trace of amusement in her voice. Her friend could be so dense sometimes.

Ash wasn't paying attention to her anymore. Near the soccer field, on a bench, a purple-haired teen was sitting cross-armed and glaring at the students like they had been doing him harm by walking around and being happy. Ash really wanted to know what was wrong with the boy. He never spoke a thing during classes (actually, they weren't supposed to talk during classes, but…) and always glared at people for no reason.

Ash was known for his lack of common sense, so he decided to go and talk to the boy.

"Excuse me, Misty." He stood up and walked to him.

"Hey, Paul, isn't it?" no answer, "what are you doing here by yourself?" Ash froze at the glare that those onyx eyes were giving him when Paul raised his head.

"Didn't you think that I actually like being here by myself?" Ash was actually content that he finally got more than one word per sentence from him, even though the words were quite harsh.

"You look upset." Paul's head dropped again, not before Ash could see the frown on his face deepening and carving three accentuated wrinkles on his forehead. "Maybe there is something I can do for you."

It was clear that Ash was getting on Paul nerves, but Ash never knew when to stop to prevent a disaster. He kept on pushing, hoping he'd get something good from Paul, but all he was getting was spite and ignorance.

"Sure you can do something for me." Naïve Ash got his hopes up, "leave me alone." Ash's face dropped while Paul stood up hastily, ready to leave. He walked past him to get inside the building, and Ash spotted something which made his blood run cold: three long, ugly scars across Paul's neck, starting from the corner of his jaw and traveling inside the collar of his dark-blue jacket.

During the rest of the afternoon, Ash couldn't think about anything else but that. What were those cuts? Did somebody cut Paul? Did Paul cut himself? Did those scars have to do something with his lousy mood? All those questions were making Ash's head spin uncontrollably; the boy couldn't be able to stop thinking about that. It was pretty much, obsessing him now, to find out what caused those cuts, no matter what it takes.

"Tomorrow's gonna be an interesting day." He heard Brock, an old friend of him, two years older than him, say to his colleagues. Ash's brain, already busy with all that mess, couldn't process what Brock was saying.

"Wednesday? What so interesting about Wednesday?" he said, completely confused. Brock stared at him.

"Wednesday? Ash, what are you talking about? Tomorrow is Heroes' day. Demonstrations at the monument. Can't believe you forgot!" If Brock would know what was going through Ash's head right now, he wouldn't have wondered that he forgot about Heroes' day. However, it was still quite weird since Ash always liked the demonstrations, the songs and the poems. Brock shot him a questioning look and he was responded with a tired one. Ash had a really hard day.

I would have made it longer but it's late and I'm really sleepy xD

Please leave a review xD