Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon, thank you very much. Why on earth would I be writing this if I did?

"What the hell are you doing?"

May sighed as she dropped another egg, shell and all, into the bowl she was working in. It really wasn't her fault she kept screwing up. If Drew would just stop staring at her like that…

"I told you that you were done with the eggs," he said roughly, taking the carton away from her.

May puffed up, ready for a fight. She had a lot of anger stored up from the last few months that, even though she had really been in a good mood now, she hadn't quite gotten out of her system. She fished out the shells with a spoon and waited until she had further instruction from her partner, who definitely seemed to know what he was doing.

He gave an exasperated sigh, "Would you be so kind as to beat the eggs. I can't believe I got paired with you today."

May slammed her fists down onto the counter they were working at. She had finally had it with that boy. Ever since they stepped foot into the room he had been barking orders at her and telling her she was doing everything wrong. She had tried to help with the rice dish, which was apparently their new dish of the week, but he insisted she was in the way and put her on soup duty. But even then, she was doing something wrong, she didn't crack the egg right, she didn't stir the rice, she didn't slice the vegetables properly, she just in general didn't know what she was doing.

"You know what, Drew," she said, positively seething. "I'm sick of you. I've sat back and dealt with all this crap for the last three months, and I'm done. If you'd rather just work alone, then tell me, because that plan seems like a good one to me."

Drew watched, more than slightly shocked at her outburst, as May stalked off, making her way to where Misty and Brock were standing.

She put on a smile for them, "I'm so sorry I exploded like that. I really hope you don't hold it against me, because I really would like to come back next time."

Misty smiled a reassuring smile, "It's okay, we understand how… well, how things get. But take my number and give me a call if you ever need to talk."

May smiled a genuine smile to her new friend Misty, "Thanks. I will."

She turned on her heel and marched out straight past Drew, head held high, confidence faltering slightly under his gaze. She didn't give up her stance, however, until she was out of the room and out of sight. When she finally was, she let out a sigh and kicked the wall lightly in pathetic frustration. She had let that guy get to her, for no reason what so ever, and had caused a scene on her first day.

She grabbed her phone from her bag and brought up her contact list. She thought for a moment about whom she wanted to call. For a moment she typed in 'G', but quickly erased it and clicked down twice and 'call' and waited for the other end to pick up.

She waited three rings until, "Hello?"

May smiled, "Hey, Ash."

He sounded a bit confused, "What's going on?"

May sighed, "Well, I was wondering if you wanted to get dinner in the cafeteria with me. I've kind of had a rough afternoon."

She could hear Ash already putting on his jacket, "Meet you there soon."

May giggled, Ash really was a great friend. She was pretty lucky. Maybe it was worth the three months of loneliness to find really great friends. Plus, she had made a new friend in Misty. On the other hand, she had also snapped at another student. She was slightly ashamed of herself and she couldn't place it, but she thought that Drew had seemed very familiar. She resolved to apologize the next time she saw him.

Picking up her bag again, she hurried out of the food science building and over to the cafeteria.

--

Three days had passed since her cooking club activities. May, Ash, and Gary were sitting in the cafeteria eating lunch together, a now usual meeting. May had nearly forgotten about her blow-up at Drew and was enjoying a moderately peaceful week, despite the fact that she hadn't been in her room for more than ten minutes at any given time. Most nights she spent in the study center talking to Ash while completing homework due several weeks into the future. She was beginning to worry that soon she would complete all her coursework for the semester and wouldn't have anything left to do during the evenings.

She resolved to at least give Max a call soon and tell him how she's been doing, especially since he had been so worried about her studies. At this point, he had nothing to worry about, as all she really had to do around the school was study.

"I heard you had a breakdown at cooking club," Gary said, snapping May out of her thoughts about studying.

"Huh?" May asked, clearly not paying attention to anything the two had been saying for the past five minutes.

Ash laughed, "So you're ignoring us, May?"

She blushed and fiddled her thumbs, "That's not true, I'm just a little distracted."

Gary waved off the issue, "I said I heard about your explosion in your club the other day. What happened?"

May's blush deepened by at least four shades. Ash had told Gary about what happened. On the one hand, she was incredibly elated to know that he talked about her to friends when she wasn't around, but at the same time, she was so embarrassed that Gary had found out about her freak out.

"Y-yeah. It was bit… well, he was pretty frustrating," she stuttered.

Ash was watching May intently. She was acting strange by his standards, and he wasn't sure what was going on. He had never seen her so nervous before, and he was sure it was just because Gary had called her out on her breakdown. When she had told him about it, she wasn't embarrassed nearly as much. He decided to dismiss the issue for now, focusing his attention to where Gary and May were looking.

"Hey, Misty!" May called out, waving to a girl across the cafeteria.

The girl in question pushed her way through the crowd and finally sat down at the table next to May.

Gary smiled and introduced himself, holding his hand out to her. She smiled and took it, looking next to Ash.

"This is Ash," May said happily. "He was my first friend here."

Misty smiled and held her hand out to Ash, who was staring quite blatantly at her. He quickly took it and smiled.

"I'm Misty. It's so nice to meet you!"

The girls turned to chatting with each other about some boy the other two didn't know. The guys shrugged and carried a conversation on of their own until they heard May cry out and slump onto the table, Misty patting her on the back.

"What's with her?" Gary asked, not seeing anything around that could logically cause May to act the way she was.

Misty jerked her thumb to the right in the direction of a boy approaching their table. He looked like a jerk to the two boys, and Ash was pretty sure this had to be the one May had exploded at, as she had never mentioned having hostile relations with any other boys on campus.

"May," he said smirking, stopping when he had reached their table. "Fancy running into you here."

May lifted her head to look at him, "Hello, Drew."

May had soon realized why she had thought he looked so familiar. Drew had just so happened to be in three of May's classes. How she hadn't noticed him before was beyond her, but she was quite frankly glad she hadn't. It saved her an extra three months of misery. As soon as she stepped into pre-calculus she saw him there, sitting in what she presumed to be his usual desk, giving her the smirk of a lifetime. He had apparently noticed her in his class before, and now intended to give her a cute little "surprise."

She had attempted to apologize for her behavior toward him the other day, but he merely accepted her apology, accusing her of being a dangerous girl with anger management, and she simply couldn't help lashing out the way she did.

She wanted to punch him in the face right there, and she wanted to punch him now.

"What do you want?" she asked in a tired voice, not ready to deal with him on a day she didn't have to.

She watched as he flipped his hair, pretty sure that he was trying to show off his looks to her. She had to admit he was pretty good looking. Too bad his personality was complete crap.

"Are you even listening to me?" he asked after her few moments of silence. "I asked you a question."

May sighed, not even bothering to apologize, "No, actually, I wasn't, because I don't feel like dealing with you right now."

He shrugged, "Suit yourself. See you in pre-calc tomorrow."

May gave a half-assed wave in his general direction, "Yeah, see you."

When he was far enough away, Misty turned her attention in on May, "You didn't tell me that he was in your classes! How come you didn't know him when you went to cooking club?"

May sighed, "Well, it's a bit embarrassing, but… no one has actually talked to me in any of my classes before he did just yesterday. Ash was my first friend, and I just met him."

Misty frowned. It was clearly not the answer she expected. May could tell she felt bad for even bringing it up. In all honesty, May didn't even care about that anymore. She was done being bitter and was just happy to have the three friends she did have, even if she did gain one heck of an enemy in the process.

"It's fine, Misty, I don't even think about it anymore," she looked over at Ash and Gary, who still weren't even sure what just happened. "Besides, they're my friends now, and that's what's important to me. And honestly, I can only really go up from here, right?"

Misty smiled and looked at May's two friends, "Well, you better take good care of May, or else you'll have to answer to me."

May giggled, "Geez, Misty, intimidate my friends, why don't you? You did just meet them, after all."

Misty gave her a victory sign, "Us girls have to stick together and take care of each other, aren't I right?"

Ash smiled, "You don't have to worry about May. She's a tough girl, and we've got her back."

Gary nodded in agreement, sending a shiver down May's back. She wasn't sure just quite why she was feeling like this so much lately, especially when he was around. It was slightly unnerving, but kind of nice at the same time.

"Well, May, it was nice seeing you, but I really have to run, I've got so much to do before I meet with Brock to discuss the next meeting," Misty said standing up. "It was nice to meet you both. See you around!"

May waved to her friend as she walked briskly from the cafeteria. Finally, she had a girl friend to talk about girl things with. As much as she loved having Ash and Gary around, it would be weird to talk to Ash about things like how she was feeling about Gary, and it would be even worse to try and discuss it with Gary himself!

"Hey, May, I have to head out, too," Ash said, gathering his things into his bag. "I'll be late for class if I don't leave soon. And Miss Jessie gets so scary when you're late."

May smiled, "I'll see you around, then."

Gary and May sat in silence together for a solid five minutes. All May could do was play with the food on her plate absentmindedly while Gary sat back and watched the people around him.

May had no idea what to say. She had never spent time with Gary alone. It was always just Ash or the both of them together. She wished Misty was still there, she would have known what to say. But she was alone, so she would have to make the best of it.

"I think I'm going to head out, too," May said stupidly. "I think the Swamp Monster may still be in class so I can grab some things from the room."

May stood up and grabbed her tray, putting on a smile for Gary. She wasn't sure what he thought of her, or if he even cared that she was a nervous wreck who couldn't think straight at the moment. She figured she could just get out of there and everything would be all right. So she did, and then kicked herself when she got out of the building for running away like a coward.

Note: This should have been done four hours ago. -.- Go figure. I get so ADD when it comes to stuff going on around here. I could have had another chapter already finished by now, but no, I have to go off and get distracted by everything any anything. Well, I got one out today, hopefully more will come soon. School's been kicking my butt though, so we'll see. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, though I don't think it's my favorite. Oh, and don't forget to tell me what you think! Danke!
Oh, and I promise, the whole thing isn't GaryxMay. I do really like the idea of her naive crush on an older boy who isn't Ash, though. But this is definitely a Contestshipping intention.