2. Banter

"Now, Bulbasaur, use Vine Whip on that frisbee!"

The brunette quickly twirled around on her left foot, throwing a pink frisbee towards her Pokémon. The flying disc spun and cut through the air with ease.

The Pokémon, Bulbasaur, extended out a green vine from the small bulb located on its back and with a simple flick and turn, sharply attacked the airborne frisbee. As a result, the disc shattered into multiple fragments that were scattered everywhere. The sunlight caused sparkles to spread across the sky.

In response to that recently performed appeal, May beamed. She spread her arms, indicating for Bulbasaur to come towards her.

Beautifly, who was simply hovering in the air next to its trainer, squealed in delight. Like Bulbasaur, it also had the ability to stunningly split a frisbee, except it used the move String Shot as opposed to Bulbasaur's Vine Whip.

The teal Pokémon started running towards its trainer, and the two embraced. "That was amazing! Probably the best appeal you've ever done!" the novice coordinator exclaimed brightly.

"I wouldn't say that it's the best, but it's certainly better than your first." A voice came out from behind May, startling her. "That one was pretty appalling."

Upon hearing the familiar voice, May's face hardened into a glare.

"Of course, you could never possibly catch up to my level of excellence," Drew said with a smirk.

Keeping her face clenched in a stiff gaze, May retaliated, "What level of excellence? Contests are a symbol of grace of elegance. I don't see any of that charm in your aquamarine-colored pants." She paused, hoping to add a more dramatic effect. "Like seriously."

Unfazed, Drew responded. "You should also try to work on your insults, along with your appeals. Like seriously," he imitated the brunette's earlier statement. "Besides, I'll have you know that the light tint of my blue pants greatly offsets the dramatic crimson color of my—"

"Of your what?" the frustrated brunette interrupted. "I see not a single color on your outfit that portrays any shade of re—"

Drew stuck a brilliant red rose right in front of her face, impeding her statement. "What was that? I couldn't hear you over the sheer amount of ignorance emanating from your body. It blinded me," he said with a smirk plastered over his cocky expression.

May daintily picked up the rose by the stem, and her angry expression quickly faded away into a gentle smile, despite Drew's blatancy with his earlier insult. "Oh, is this for me? How—"

And, yet again, she was cut off. "Of course it's not for you!" he dismissed her with a simple wave of his hand. "It's for Beautifly! She certainly has made a lot of progress since I last saw her appeal. However, it seems that her trainer still has a lot to work on." Drew continued, his smirk never wavering. "At this rate, you'll never catch up to my standards."

May just glared at him, clearly fuming.

Bulbasaur, on the other hand, carefully nudged Drew's leg as if he wanted some sort of acknowledgement from the young male coordinator. The chartreuse-haired coordinator looked down towards the grass-type Pokémon, observing the expression on the small creature's face. Crouching down to his knees, Drew pet Bulbasaur's head.

"Don't worry, you did good too. Here," he said, thrusting out a second rose and placing it on the ground in front of Bulbasaur. In response, Bulbasaur picked up the flower and stuffed the petals in its mouth.

Drew simply laughed while May looked at the two with a dumbfounded look on her face. Her mouth agape, she mumbled, "Who knew that Drew Hayden would act like this around Pokémon?"

With a smug look on his face, said coordinator flicked his bangs off to one side. "Well, I guess my masculine charm works on everyone and everything, not just females."

Rolling her eyes, May smartly retorted, "Eh, I don't think so. Maybe the compatibility between you and Bulbasaur is simply there because you both have a certain affinity towards plants. I mean, Bulbasaur is a grass-type Pokémon, and you," she halted her speech momentarily, "you have that mop of grass placed upon your head."

Flipping his hair yet again, Drew responded. "It's one of the many things everybody loves about me."

The lights shined brightly in the Contest Hall as confetti rained down from sprinklers on the ceiling. The word, "WINNER" was placed across the main screen that rose above the front stage. Just above the short phrase, a picture of a young brunette with pigtails was displayed along with a picture of her Pokémon, Beautifly.

Located at the center of the main stage was that same girl, who was proudly holding up a pink ribbon with white stripes. The crowd roared with adrenaline still pumping through the veins, as the final match had come to a close finish.

However, that adrenaline was nothing close to the kind experienced by May, who had recently won the Fallarbor Town Contest. As she walked back out of the building, her body still shook from the excitement of being on-stage. And winning, nonetheless.

On her way back to the Pokémon Center, May encountered her green-haired rival (who she had just beat in the previous contest, even though the two didn't engage in an actual battle against each other).

"Congratulations," he said monotonously. "That last battle you had against Grace seemed to be really stressful."

"Thanks, Drew! I didn't know that you could be capable of giving out such optimism!" May responded happily, though there was a tinge of sarcasm infused into her voice.

He shrugged it off but immediately went back to his past demeanor. "Of course, if you had faced me in the semi-finals, you certainly would've lost."

"Yeah, but then you would've lost against Grace."

"Minor details."

May merely rolled her eyes.

"Well, I guess I'll see you around, May." With that said, Drew turned around and walked away.

The brunette shouted after him, cupping her hands in order to amplify the sound. "If I ever battle you, I'll surely win!"

Without turning back, he raised his arm and waved with the back of his hand facing outward.

He left with his signature smirk on his face.

A/N: ... Drew feels really OOC to me... .-. Meh oh well XP

Review?~ :)