A/N: I updated a lot faster than I thought I was going to! Yay!...but then FF wouldn't let me update my stuff for a week, so finishing early was kind of useless. Sometimes I think life really does conspire against me updating on time. XD I think this chapter is a tad bit slow, until the end when Drew shows up (it's so obvious I'm not going to even bother with spoilers) Hope you like it!
After Orientation, where the Pokemon League's President and Professor Oak spoke to them about the importance of their future in the school, how it would affect their lives afterwards, the wonderful world of Pokemon (to be honest, she lost most of it after this point), May glanced at her completed schedule, which went something like this:
1: Math (Level Two) - Mr. Katsura, Room 22B
2: History of Pokemon- Dr. Eusine, Room 52C
3: Health – Mrs. Natsume, Room 34B
4: Biology- Mrs. Nagoshi, Room 33B
5 Pokecare- Professor Birch, Room 55A
6: Training- Lt. Surge, Practice Field #1
7: Literature- Mr. Matsuba, Room 25A
8: Culinary Arts- Mrs. Melissa, Room 56B
She bit back a groan once she saw her first class of the day. She hated math with a burning passion, and it hated her too. Numbers and Figures and shapes and letters—they all just jumbled together in her mind and came onto the paper in chaotic scribbles and just confused her more.
Still, though with perhaps the exception of Training and Health, she was happy with most of the rest of her classes, particularly Literature and Culinary Arts.
People were starting to trickle out of the auditorium where orientation was held.
"I'd better get moving, don't want be late on my first day of school…" she thought dazedly.
"Bye May! Bye Ash! See you at lunch!"
"Yeah, see ya!"
She waved goodbye to Misty and Dawn, who both had classes on the other side of school. Thankfully, Ash had 1st period Math with her so at least she'd have somebody in the class she knew. But just thinking of that reminded her that she was new. Butterfrees started flying in her stomach as she walking—What if she didn't do well? What if she didn't make any friends? What if—
"Hey May," Ash called to her, "Where' you goin', Katsura's class is this way"
"Heh, heh," she chuckled nervously, "I knew that."
The bell rang, just as Ash and May slid into their seats. Since there weren't any two seats next to each other left, she sat next to a boy with curly blonde hair and an orange shirt and a girl with blue pigtails, while Ash sat two seats diagonally in front of her.
It was a normal looking classroom with approximately 30 student desks and one larger teacher's desk at front, although the teacher in question was nowhere to be seen. The white board was covered in complicated looking formulas, written explanations, occasional geometric shapes all in different colors. The effect was a bit overwhelming and staring at it for too long made May's head hurt.
People around her started murmuring.
"Where is he?"
"This is the right classroom for Math, right?"
"I hear that he's completely psycho- plain bonkers"
"Really? I hear he was pretty awesome to have but—"
"Don't worry," she heard Ash's voice, "Katsura is a weird old man, but he's pretty cool too…"
Just then an old man walked briskly into the room. He was dressed in one of the strangest outfits May had ever seen, a matching red pinstripe suit with a white fedora and black sunglasses. She assumed he was their missing Math teacher, but judging on his appearance, looked more at place in a carnival than in a classroom.
Quick as a flash he took his cane and pointed it straight at Ash.
"Ash! M'boy—Tell me what the dimensions of a Goldeen's horn are in relation to polar equations and dimensional analysis and I'll let you keep your hat on!"
Ash looked about as confused as she felt. "Huh?"
"For your information, Mr. Ketchum, the area of a Goldeen's horn can be found using the formula for finding a cone, although to find the maximum length you would need a polar equation to the apex of the curve. Say hello to the Professor and your mother for me next time too."
"And you," he pointed at another boy across the room, "If Magikarp's average base stat for attack is 35, by what power must you raise it in order for splash to have a damaging effect?"
"Infinity?"
"Good try lad, but it's a trick, splash will never damage anything unless it's right next to a Charizard's tail" he chortled.
"And you," he pointed again towards her now, to the girl in pigtails next to her. (May breathed an internal sigh of relief) " "By what percent does a DireHit increase your chance for a critical hit, and does it have a higher or lower probability than focus energy?"
The girl scrunched her face in intense concentration. "Higher?"
"It actually varies depending on the type of move you are using and other factors such as accuracy and speed that are determined by other functions."
He looked around the classroom, and nodded affirmatively. He looked disappointed, although it was hard to tell what his expression was from the black sunglasses he wore. Who wore sunglasses indoors anyways?, she had to wonder.
"Not a single one of my questions answered? Tsk, tsk, it seems like I have a lot of work ahead of me this year…For those of you who haven't guessed by now, I am Dr. Matsura and your new math teacher for Math Level 2s. If you're new, welcome to Four Points, it's a place to grow, try, and succeed, and grow, try, and succeed you will. Starting with Math, I'll teach you Algebra, Trig, Economics, and beginnings of Calculus and by the end of the year you will be able to answer the questions of the day…
"We'll be starting with the Origins of the world of Pokemon in the first chapter, specifically dealing with the legends of the Jewel of Life, Sea and Ground Legendaries, controversies in the dates and regions, and alternate creation theories such as the Distortion Theory, Golem theory and my personal favorite of the creation myths, the Tree of Life Myth, so I suggest that everybody get a head start read the first twenty pages of Pokemon: A History…" Professor Eusine explained to his rapidly detoriating class.
"Is he always like this?" May whispered to Crystal, the blunette who wore her hair in pigtails and had sat next to her in Math and who she had met up in the hallways to their next class.
"Trust me," she glanced back. "Wait until he starts talking about the Burned Tower and Suicine—we'll never finish the chapter by March…"
"I am Mrs. Natsume," in a voice no louder than a whisper, a beautiful woman with straight dark hair stared at them with the coldest look May had ever seen on a human being.
"I will be your health teacher for the rest of the year, and I expect complete obedience to the rules that I set down in this classroom and all assignments I hand out to be completed efficiently and on time. Failure to do so will result in punishment. Is that clear?"
"Yes, Mrs. Natsume," the class answered in unison, with a couple of nervous chuckles from the back.
Mrs. Natsume's expression did not change. "Good. Now the human body is a complex and mysterious thing and part of Health is learning what makes the entire organism work and how to keep it in the best condition…"
Mrs. Natsume waved her hand, and a girl screamed. Dawn, who also had health and sat beside her, jumped backwards in her chair and pointed. May could only stare in horror as the life-sized dummy that was once by the door was now floating, suspended right above the teacher's desk.
Mrs. Natsume continued, completely unperturbed, as if making items float was the most ordinary thing in the world for her. "Do not worry, I have had psychic powers ever since I was a little child…However, as I was saying, you will learn how to treat your body and mind with the proper care so that nothing falls apart, or—"
A resounding crack split the air as the dummy's arm hung limply at its side
-breaks."
After the first three classes of the day, May wasn't really sure what to expect anymore; she could only hope that next class wasn't crazier than the last although with the way things were looking…
She shivered from the memory of last period Health. I never want to get on her bad side…
Still, she couldn't possibly imagine her teachers being any stranger or classes getting any worse—She'd always liked Biology, and was already feeling more cheerful by the minute in the well-lit, colorful, poster-filled lab room.
Just then, a green-haired boy with a black shirt and purple jacket strode confidently into class, and May was hit with a jolt of recognition.
It's the guy that knocked into me earlier!
Wait…Why is he moving closer to me?
Panicking, she saw him move closer and closer to where she was sitting. Glancing around, she realized that the seat next to her was one of the only empty ones left—but she didn't want to sit next to someone like him—especially not on the first day of school.
"ESP, don't fail me now", she thought. "Please go sit over there, over there, not here…"
No such luck. He slung his school bag over the counter, and seconds later, took the seat right next to her. Darn ESP had failed her…
Upon closer examination, (blushingly) she had to admit that he was, well, cute. His hair wasn't quite the grass color that she originally thought it was, but instead, a tea-green, chartreuse type color that gently curled into his eyes, which, as May noted, were the exact same color as his hair.
Was that even possible? She'd never actually met someone who had such an unusual matching hair and eye color before, and was sorely tempted to ask him about it, along with an explanation for his rude behavior earlier in the day, but he was kind of intimidating…
"If you're going to stare at me, you might want to do it in a less obvious way than leaving your mouth open like a Magikarp." He smirked at her and flipped his hair.
God, was her mouth really open? She hastily shut her mouth while he snickered unpleasantly next to her. Any curious feelings she had for him flat buggered out.
"Hey, you –"
"Morning, class!" the teacher entered the room, and May was cut off short.
"I am Mrs. Nagoshi and I'll be your Biology teacher for the rest of the year, and I must say, it's great to see so many smiling faces in front of me today, guess your other classes have really put you in the mood for something crazy!..."
Still smirking, he flipped his hair at her again, clearly displaying a "I'm-better-than-thou-art" look, which only got May madder. She consciously ignored him, focusing intently, a little too intently, on the teacher instead.
Inside, she was fuming. The little green-haired jerk! Deliberately taunting her like that! Who did he think he was?
"Well, I'm sure you've already heard most of the same stuff from all your other teachers and since it is the first day of school too, I have a little activity for you all to do! You'll be working with the people in this class in many group assignments throughout the year, so what better way to start it off than getting to know your fellow classmates!" Mrs. Nagoshi removed the cover on one of the whiteboards, revealing a list of things such as "FAVORITE FOOD" or "PLACES I WANT TO VISIT".
"—So pair up with the person next to you and in five minutes, I'll call for a switch and you'll move on to the person next to them."
Person next to her? She willed herself not to look at his smirking face. Oh, no, no, no…
"Sounds good? Right, then, everybody get started!"
She turned around in the opposite direction, but the other person had already started talking to the guy next to him. She felt a tap on her shoulder.
"I would've thought that you would've jumped at the chance at talking to me, you know, with the way you were staring at me earlier."
May blushed. "I wasn't staring at you!"
"Right, so you were staring with your mouth open at the wall instead."
"Yes! I mean—No— I just thought it was weird that your eyes and hair were that weird shade of green…" she turned an even deeper shade of red as she realized what she just said.
He chuckled. "So you were staring at me."
"Can't you go be nasty to someone else?"
He sighed dramatically. "Figures that you're not very smart either."
"Hey!"
"Weren't you just listening to what the teacher said? I'm stuck with you until the end of these five minutes are up."
"But I don't want to learn anything about you!" she cried out indignantly.
"I'm sure you don't," he drawled sarcastically.
Just then, Mrs. Nagoshi walked by, and the boy started talking.
"The name's Drew Hayden, I come from LaRousse City, my favorite food is Bouillabaisse and Sushi, my favorite Pokemon is Roselia, and I've already visited all the places I wanted to go, except for Nimbassa City in the Unova region…"
"Excellent, Excellent," Mrs Nagoshi looked on approvingly as she walked away.
Drew leaned back in his chair casually. "So what about you, Red?"
"What?"
He gave a distasteful look at her. "Well, I don't know your name and your entire outfit is the most hideous cherry color that I've ever seen, so I might as well call you Red."
First he insulted her intelligence, now her fashion sense? Yeah, she knew that her outfit had a lot of red on it, but it was her favorite color and it wasn't that bright. It wasn't as if he was some sort of fashion expert either with his purple jacket!
"It's not that bright! And besides, who died and made you fashion expert number one anyways?" she glared at him.
He shrugged nonchalantly. "Whatever you say, Red."
"Stop calling me that!"
"If you told me your name, I wouldn't be calling you Red in the first place."
"But you don't care—you don't want to know anything about me!" May protested.
"Not true, Red. It'll be useful know your name so I can make sure never to willingly associate myself with freaks like you."
"I wasn't going to tell you my name anyways, but now I certainly won't do it now!"
"Or I could just call you Red for the rest of the year…" he smirked casually.
She blanched. Did she really want to be called Red for the rest of the year? He was probably going to learn her name anyways, they did have the same class together—she couldn't hide from him forever…
"Fine," she slouched in her chair. "It's May."
"Just May?"
"No, it's May Maple," she sulked.
He snorted. "Real original name your parents came up with…"
She gave him a dirty look and was about to say something, when Mrs. Nagoshi called out "Switch!"
She breathed a sigh of relief, pointedly ignoring Drew as she walked by, and moved on to her next partner, thankful that her ordeal was finally over.
The bell rang.
"That was terrible," she groaned inwardly as she smiled towards her partner, a nice, but chubby boy named Anthony who came from Slateport City. She was so angry after Drew that it put her in a bad mood when she was talking to everybody else in a class, which made her even more grumpy.
Good thing that she had lunch next period with Ash, Dawn, and Misty.
She packed up her stuff and was heading for the door, when someone abruptly slid past her.
"See you later, Red."
Storming, she left for lunch in a huff.
Oh dear. XD
I hope May doesn't look too stupid in this chapter. Yes, she kind of hates him, but who wouldn't? He's a jerk at first, and those stories that have May instantly like Drew in spite of his arrogance kind of annoy me b/c they seem too improbable...
Special Brownie points if you can guess who all of her teachers so far are based on! (Hint, Hint: Most are gym leaders)
Review?
