Disclaimer: I do not own 'Pokemon' although I wish I did.

TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN

A B.D Vega Storyline

Chapter Two: Not as it Seems

I told myself I would survive in this school as long as I stayed in the shadows. If I just stayed quiet and went along with everyone else. If I just ignored everything, all was well as long as I never crossed that guy's path. It was going well so far, being friendless was all right for me because that made me invisible towards everyone and lessened my chances of getting noticed by him.

But that was all about to change.

If I could only rewind time. Back to the part when I bumped that stranger. If I had apologized back then, would it have made any difference?

Remember when I said that nothing could be scarier than arriving tardy at Professor Walter's class? Well, I take that back. There was something scarier than that and being the most unluckiest girl in the world I happen to just walk upon it.

May's Classroom 4:30pm

He slid open our classroom door with more force like he wanted to and walked inside without a single care in the world. Professor Walter, whom I knew to be the strictest teacher was surprisingly speechless and bowed politely at Drew and Brendan when they came in before leaving abruptly outside the door. Girls squealed, giggled and looked at both coordinators dreamily while the boys shivered in fear thinking to themselves what business Drew had in our class and with whom. As for me, I kept quiet and watched silently as Andrew Hayden sat nonchalantly on the teacher's desk, arms crossed and eyes scanning the room for something or someone. He didn't even say anything and just stared at all the students present today down while Brendan just stood there beside him with an expressionless face.

In every person Drew bullied, Brendan was always there. I didn't want to believe it sometimes but from the rumors I heard Brendan actually helps with the bullying. But like I always said, rumors are just rumors and are all hearsay so there's no telling if it's real or not. Brendan wasn't like that. I know, from the way he shows appreciation to the cherry blossom tree and his act of care towards his Sceptile but then again, dad always did tell me that sometimes- some things are not as it seems. I just hope that saying doesn't apply to Brendan.

The class was silent now, the giggling had died down and the atmosphere became more tense as Drew's smirk got wider as he scanned each student in the room with his intense gaze.

I was seated at the last row by the corner of the room next to the bookshelves and windows so it would take time before he got to me but I fidgeted nervously as his gaze from student to student got nearer to where I sat. He went from Ken to Sharron to Jonathan to Wilfred and finally to me.

I stared into his green orbs and was almost lost in them if I stared any longer, his gaze took longer compared to the others and I saw as his smirk turned into a nasty smile. He stood up from the desk and clapped his hands loudly, "Found ya." He proclaimed aloud.

All heads turned towards him and he shoved both his hands in his pockets coolly and looked towards my direction, "You see, earlier this morning someone had the nerve to bump into me. I was in a good mood that time so I would have forgiven her if she said sorry but guess what I got? Nothing! She just ran along without so much as a single apology. I hate those kinds of people the most. And she even let me go through all the classrooms just to look for her. Fortunately for me, I finally found her."

I didn't need to be an Ace detective to find out who he was talking about. Half the class already figured it out and started glaring daggers at me while the other half were still guessing and I knew it wouldn't take long for them to find out as well that the girl who bumped into the great Andrew Hayden without a single apology was none other than the invisible, friendless girl May Maple.

I would be lying if I said that I wasn't scared. My heart was beating faster than usual, I was getting a tight congestion in my chest like I couldn't breathe or something as if someone knocked the breathe out of me. My stomach was churning, I was shaking like a leaf and I didn't need to look at a mirror to find out that I was as white as a ghost.

One of the many rules in this school is that if Andrew Hayden goes after you then the whole student body goes after you as well. Torturing you so you would leave the school and he would get away with it- he always did.

A year trying to keep myself away from him and it all ended in naught. I happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

And to think that everything was already going so well.

All was well.

I even made a friend.

All was well.

I thought school finally became interesting.

All was well.

Until now.

I looked down on my wooden desk and didn't dare look him in the face as I felt my whole body trembling, Oh no, this was it, it's really happening… No, what if I can't take it…

Help me.

"How about we treat the little lady some manners shall we?" he said and almost automatically, I felt hands all around me.

Everything happened so fast.

Everyone was all around me, I didn't even know if it was a male or female holding me anymore.

They were pulling my hair and my uniform; they took my bag and dumped all the contents out the window along with it. They took my Pokéballs and handed it over to Drew but before I could even react, they suddenly yanked me out from my chair rather harshly and kicked me violently on the spot. When they were done with that, they started pulling my hair once again before shoving me on the tiled floor in front of Drew who stared down at me with a sadistic smile on his face.

"Who knew little miss quiet had such rude manners." One of my classmates- Jenna said, as she tugged at my hair.

"What. A. Loser." Karen (who also happens to be our class secretary) remarked as she removed my school shoes and threw them at the garbage bin.

"You should have known better than to mess with our prince." Brianna-, who was the female version of Drew when it came to bullying, stated, as she removed my red bandana and cut it with a pair of scissors while sprinkling it all over me like some confetti.

All the shame, hurt and disgrace and all because I bumped into him in the hallways.

I looked down on the tiled floor just wishing that it would swallow me whole right now to end this nightmare that is Andrew Hayden.

"Look at me," Drew said aloud but I didn't look at him.

"Drew just told you to do something." Brianna spoke as she forced me to look up to Drew like a servant would a king with her bare hands, her long manicured fingers dug deeply into my cheeks as if they would leave a mark there when she let go.

I had no choice but to look up to him and by doing that, I saw everything I hated in this world. He was like the living reincarnation of the devil himself. The way he looked at me like he was on top of the world, the way he smirked telling me he was actually enjoying this sick display of bullying. I hated him so much, hated, hated, hated , HATED him with all my heart that it made me wonder why life created something so vile and cruel in the first place.

He was immoral, sinful and downright wicked. I wish he were dead, so that all his horrible and unpleasant deeds would finally be put to a stop. He didn't deserve to live, people like him were better of condemned in hell for eternity. I hated him so much. So much, that it was unbearable.

But maybe karma was punishing me. Punishing me for not saving that freshman when I had a chance, for not stepping up against him, for not showing him that all he was doing was wrong. Maybe I deserved all this after all. I'm weak. I'm hopeless. I'm scared. And I just wanted to go home.

However, I will not cry. Not for someone like him. Not now, not never. I'm strong enough. I will not cry no matter how much this all hurts. Don't cry May. Show him you're not weak.

Show him.

But it was harder than I thought especially when my gaze wandered towards Brendan whose eyes widened as he fully looked at my face and recognized who I was, "You…" He muttered but Drew heard him and the green-haired boy turned towards his friend, eyebrows raised.

"You know her?"

Save me. I was about to say but that wouldn't have any effect even if I was able to say it because Brendan just looked away from me and shook his head, "Nope, must have mistaken her for someone else. Do carry on."

That was all it took for the tears that were threatening to come out moments ago come falling down my eyes like waterfalls.

With both his feet rested comfortably on my back like I was some kind of footstool as Samantha and her friends took pictures while the whole class watched and laugh was my current state right now after a few minutes have passed.

"Aww, she stopped crying." Brianna said disappointedly as she zoomed her camera at my face and snapped a photo. "What an ugly sight." She added.

I stayed silent. I fear that if I utter a single word he will use it against me. Better just obey and endure whatever he throws without a single complain, maybe then he would finally get bored and leave me be.

"This is getting boring." I heard him say, yes, that's right, just get bored already and leave.

"But wait." He lifted both his feet from my back and walked in front of me tossing a Pokéball up in the air- my Pokéball. My eyes widened. Anything, anything would do, just not my Pokemon.

"No…" I manage to say, "Hmm? Finally got a reaction out of you huh? Well, this'll be interesting." He said with yet another smirk.

"Come on out!" Drew threw the metal sphere on the floor and out came my Blaziken. It looked around the room confusingly then turned to me and immediately boiled with rage as it saw the state I was in, "BLLLAAAAZZZEEEE!" it cried.

All my classmates suddenly rushed towards the other end of the room, afraid that my Blaziken would burn them if they ever got near to it. Even Brianna, who was so full of herself a while ago obviously looked very scared as she gazed into my Blaziken's heated eyes.

Brendan didn't seem affected and continued to look away while Drew looked at Blaziken with amusement written all over his face. "Impressive, such beauty and power. Who knew someone like you owned a Pokemon like this."

"BLAAAAAZE!" Blaziken cried out again and stood protectively in front of me while facing Drew who looked at it with a smug look showing that he wasn't intimidated with my Blaziken one bit.

"What are you planning Drew?" Brendan, who stayed quiet the whole time, finally spoke, as this was already getting out of hand.

"You'll see." Drew then got one of his own Pokeballs and threw one in the air to release a beautiful and elegant Delcatty.

"Delcatty use Attract on Blaziken." The feline Pokemon did as it was told and winked cutely and since I didn't order Blaziken to dodge or anything the attack headed straight for it and I was already too late. My Blaziken was completely under his Delcatty's command.

"I always wondered what it would look like if your very own Pokemon attacked its trainer don't you think?"

This person was truly evil. I was already out of words to describe how despicable this person was. How could he? Use my own Pokemon to attack me? What kind of sick twisted mind did this guy even have?

My body couldn't move, Drew slowly raised his arm and tried to command my Blaziken when-,

"Blaz-,"

"Enough. Drew," Brendan took a firm hold of Drew's arm. "What are you doing Brendan?" Drew said with an accusing tone.

"Stop it already. Don't you think she already had enough?"

Drew laughed at how absurd Brendan sounded to him right now and shook his arm off before grabbing Brendan by the collar, "I say when she's had enough, now since your so great, you do it." He said while letting go of Brendan and pushing him in front of me.

"C'mon everyone, cheer for Brendan!" Drew shouted towards the whole class.

"GO BRENDAN!" It started with Brianna, "BRENDAN!" Then the next one started cheering, "BRENDAN!" Then the next, "BRENDAN!" and the next and the next until the entire class started clapping and cheering for Brendan.

"You asked for it." Drew said with an evil smile as he looked at his friend.

Brendan sighed, "Drew…" was all I heard him say. He then turned to me, pity evident on his face as he crouched down and lifted my face gently to look at him.

"I'm afraid your not welcome to the cherry blossom tree anymore May. After all this is over, it's best you just transfer to another school. Don't worry, things will be better off that way. It has for the others and it will work for you as well." He then did his charming smile, the smile he always gave when we were at the cherry blossom tree, the smile that made me smile as well, the smile that would always lift my sadness and the same smile that made me fall for him. Usually that smile would calm me down but now, it just made me feel hurt. "I told you before, I'm no angel. Don't compliment me like that. I don't deserve it…. I'm sorry." The 'I'm sorry' part came out as a soft whisper.

He stood up and looked at my Blaziken who was still under Attract and got ready to command it and from there he suddenly became an entirely different person.

This boy wasn't Brendan. This can't possibly the same Brendan I met by the cherry blossom tree.

No way, this was impossible.

That person couldn't possibly do something like this…Right? I just know he wouldn't. He was different than the rest right? He was not like the others… He was different. He had to be.

But he was his bestfriend. And like the saying goes, birds of the same feather flock together.

I just wouldn't believe it, no way… Please, don't let it be him.

"C'mon Brendan show that loser her manners!" The class cheered.

And that was all the proof I needed to know that it was indeed him, I lifted my head and stared straight into his dark orbs.

"Blaziken, use Ember…" He said without even looking at me.

I watched in pure horror as my Blaziken turned towards me and released a fire attack not too strong to burn a building down but enough to leave slight burn marks on my shoulders and legs.

It hurt. It hurt so bad. And yet, why do I feel so numb?

"Good job." Drew patted Brendan by the shoulders while the class applauded, "Alright, everyone show's over!" He said and the school bells rang indicating that it was already dismissal time.

Drew was the first to leave the room after he withdrew his Delcatty with Brendan tagging along behind him. And neither of them looked back.

Few minutes passed and all my classmates started exiting the room leaving me helplessly on the floor until I passed out from exhaustion.

Dawn's Room 6:00pm

I awoke in what seemed to be someone's room. My wounds didn't hurt so bad anymore, my shoes were on the floor along with my bag and Pokeballs. I sat up from the comfortable bed and opened my bag to find that all my things were safely inside. Like it wasn't thrown out the window in the first place.

I took the time to scan the room, it was rather girly looking. The color pink was very dominant and there were stuff toys of pokemon everywhere while the wall had posters of what seemed to be popular pokemon coordinators. I recognized Robert and his Milotic on one of them.

I heard footsteps outside the room and held a random pillow I grabbed protectively in front of me as the door slowly creaked open.

"Burn Heal's are amazing am I right-," A blue-haired female opened the door holding a bowl of soup while a tomboyish looking girl with short orange hair followed.

"Glad to see you're finally awake. No need to worry about your parents, I already contacted them using your phone telling them you are here for a sleepover, if you don't mind. It's a Saturday tomorrow anyways." The blue-haired girl said as she saw me stare at her warily while she set down the bowl of soup on the desk near the bed.

"Who… Are you?"

She gave a confident smile, "The name's Dawn."

"I'm Misty nice to meet you." The other girl said.

"I…What am I doing here?" I questioned. What was I doing in some stranger's house while being offered a nice hot bowl of soup? As I recalled, I passed out inside my classroom and after that, all I remembered was black and nothing else.

"We know what Drew did to you. Gossip travels around fast so we did everything we could to help you. We got all your stuff by the way, it was a good thing the janitor found them and kept it for a while for safe keeping. We never liked how Drew treats others so Misty and I always help those he bullies and that includes you. It's a lot of hard work I'll say, that guy gets mad at the littlest things." Dawn explained while sitting beside me on the bed.

"Won't he find out that your helping us?"

Misty shook her head, "Oh he knows, but that guy can't do anything once were involved."

"Why not?"

"Well…" Dawn started, "First of all Me, Misty, Brendan and Drew are childhood friends you see, so he wouldn't go after us."

"Really? No way…" How could these kind beautiful people ever be acquainted with someone like him?

"He wasn't always such a bully, over-confident yes, but never a bully. I guess the pressure got to him." Misty said, "Ever since we were small all the adults always expected something from him so he couldn't enjoy childhood that much like we did. He always smiled and laughed when he hung around with Dawn and me though, especially when he was with Brendan, man those guys are like brothers already and it creeps me out seeing how close those two are."

Brendan…

The name sounded so hurtful to me right now.

"Brendan… Is he also a bully…?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Brendan? Bully? Are you kidding? That guy can't even hurt a fly without saying sorry a million times." Dawn laughed, "He's sugar, spice and everything nice! That guy was also quite the crybaby when we were young."

I didn't believe them one bit.

"But he was the one who ordered my Blaziken…" I murmured.

Dawn's stopped laughing and now had a serious look on her face, "I'm sure Drew told him to do that am I right?" I nodded and Dawn sighed, "He never really means any harm but if Drew commands him then he has no choice but to follow… He owes Drew that much."

And now I was just confused, "Why?"

"Sorry, can't tell you. Maybe some other time. Now why don't you just eat this soup I have prepared I bet you're hungry." Dawn pinched my nose.

"Hope you survive Dawn's cooking." Misty teased and Dawn replied by giving her a playful punch on the arm.

"My wounds…" I said in amazement as I looked at my arms and legs and saw that the wounds were completely gone.

"All it takes is a couple of Burn Heal and besides you weren't burnt that badly I guess your Blaziken snapped out at the last second. You can't imagine how torn it looked like when we found you."

I got my Pokéball that contained Blaziken and looked at it affectionately before whispering a short thank you and placing it back in my bag; I then looked towards Misty and Dawn.

"I can't thank you enough." I told them sincerely.

"But you know girl, you got a lot of guts. Imagine all the torture Drew must've put you through and you only cried once, once. Not everyone could survive all that." Misty stated, "You're like the second female that was able to endure him for that long."

"Second?"

"Yeah, you know after-,"

"Misty…" Dawn said in a warning tone while glancing at her friend.

"Oh, yeah… My bad." Misty didn't continue her statement.

I ignored it thinking it wasn't that important anyway and instead tried to taste Dawn's soup.

"You won't transfer school right?" Dawn asked worriedly as I took a sip.

"I really, really don't want to … But what if Drew comes after me again?"

"No, you're not leaving. As long as you hang around with us your safe." Misty suggested.

"But what makes me so special?" It's true, they helped a lot of people like me before so what makes me any different.

"Because all of them never gave it chance, they were all 'Oh I'll just transfer school' and all that crying crap that it wasn't really worth it." Dawn imitated the voices with a mocking tone.

"Hanging out with you guys? Then that makes us… Friends, right?" Dawn and Misty looked at each other and burst into a series of laughter.

"Hahaha! As of now we are," Dawn wrapped her arm around my neck playfully, "Just don't give up alright? I have a feeling that maybe you're the one my Togekiss was talking about."

"Eh?"

"Dawn's Togekiss did Future sight and it saw Drew smiling happily again after all this years and a girl was making him smile but it was really blurry so we couldn't see the girls face clearly but Togekiss's future sight was never wrong before." Misty clarified.

"How are you sure that it's me?" Because as I see it, that was truly impossible.

Dawn smiled at me knowingly, "I just have a feeling."

Three of us talked the whole night and I felt really close to them almost instantly like we were already the best of friends. They were so easy to talk to and I was happy we were in the same year because that meant I get to hang around with them during break times. We talked about Misty and her crush with a guy named Ash Ketchum while Dawn talked about her boyfriend Paul and their on and off relationships.

Meeting that jerk had something good come out from it after all. Having people whom you can call friends really felt good and refreshing and since I'll start hanging around with Misty and Dawn starting on Monday then coming to the cherry blossom tree wasn't needed anymore. Besides, didn't Brendan say that I wasn't welcomed there any longer? I wonder what he was thinking about right now? Dawn and Misty did say he was really kind at heart but was only forced to do things he didn't want to because he owed Drew something.

But what?

Was it something so important he would let Drew order him around like that? I really should have asked Misty and Dawn but it looked like it was a very sensitive issue so I decided not to know.

Many questions popped in my head that I failed to notice the blue bottle pointing at my direction.

"C'mon May it's your turn!" I shrugged off all those troubling thoughts and concentrated on the spin the bottle game we were playing instead.

Brendan had his reasons.

I'm no angel.

No, Brendan. You're wrong.

I looked at the full moon outside Dawn's window and told myself that after all the things that have happened today…

My feelings for him haven't wavered one bit.

I was finally at ease, when another question popped in my head.

Misty and Dawn both said that I was the second girl who ever endured Drew's antics but if I was second...

Then who was the first one?

PREVIEW:

"She's arriving here tomorrow you know but she's only staying for a few days,"

"Who is?" Brendan whipped his head to look at Drew and saw his friend's expression darkened for a slight second before reverting back to his callous face with a hint of bitterness still evident.

Brendan didn't press the issue any further and looked away.

That's the second chapter! I would like to thank Soulneko for being the first one to ever review, favorite and follow this story. I would also like to say thank you to Spelonberry for pointing out my mistakes. English is not my native language and I'm still learning but I don't think that's an excuse to write sloppily so I really appreciate your criticism and I plan on taking note of all the things you said when I type the next chapter ^_^

Hope you liked it!

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