Tales of the Heart
Story One: Building Relationships
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Hey guys! It's time for chapter 3! And I'm going to feature some of the characters from Pokemon! "Why?" you may say. Well, let's just say that I wanted to make the chapter more interesting and making it more intense than the previous chapters I updated so far. That's the reason why. I also added the story of Ash and his journey in Pokemon. I also added to what happened after Ash Ketchum becomes a Pokemon Master. Anyway, I hope this chapter makes it more interesting. Cross my fingers!
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE SHOWS AND THE SONGS WHICH WILL BE USED IN THIS FANFIC STORY. THESE BELONG TO ITS RESPECTFUL OWNERS. I HOPE FOR YOUR KIND CONSIDERATION AND UNDERSTANDING.
RATING ADVISORY: THIS STORY IS A CERTIFIED "K+" FOR CHAPTERS THAT ARE BEST READ FOR ALL READERS YOUNG AND OLD, AND "T" FOR LATER CHAPTERS THAT ARE ONLY TO TEENS AGED 13 ABOVE.
Chapter 3
Friends and Arguments
= RUNO'S POV=
-sigh- Time? 11:45 and I'm still stranded inside school because of that blizzard. Oh, I wish it would stop. I'm still in the library with my friends – Marucho and Julie. I wonder what Dan and Shun gone off to? They said they went to the cafeteria to have some lunch but it's almost noon and they haven't been show off yet here. I guess they have gone off to somewhere else. Well, who cares about it anyway? Maybe they're talking about their projects in school 'cause they have low grades. Believe me, it's not easy going to summer school.
Marucho puts down the book and started to wonder: "Hey guys!"
Me and Julie were just reading an English book. So I pop out first and started to stare at him: "What is it Marucho?"
"Cat got your tongue?" Julie pops out second.
"No." he wonders. "I was just wondering."
"What?" I ask him.
"Dan and Shun have been gone for a while now." He says.
"So?" I ask him again.
"I wonder where are they? It's been a while." He says.
"Why?" Julie asks. "You miss them, haven't you?"
Marucho starts to blush at himself. He couldn't answer the "truth-or-die" question Julie was asking. So Julie and I started to draw close to him. So I say to him: "Come on, don't you miss your pals?"
"Well…" Marucho's face heads down and plays with his fingers. "Maybe a little."
"Oh come on Marucho." Julie says. "You know we're just joking."
"Yeah. You're too much serious." I add. Then we laughed afterwards.
"Speaking of them." Julie says. "Where are they, anyway?"
"Who cares about them?" I ask them. "Maybe they're still in the cafeteria getting some more food."
"I guess we need to call them." Marucho says.
So Marucho grabs his phone and tries to call Dan and Shun. First, we try to call Dan. After that, we heard a cellphone ringing. The three of us didn't notice that Dan's cellphone is inside his bag, which is under the table. So all that's left is Shun's number. And before the three of us could even call Shun, we spotted Dan walking inside the library.
"Look it's Dan!" Julie says. Dan stops walking and instead standing behind the main doors of the library.
"Dan!" we shouted. Oh, and don't worry about the librarian, Jeorge. He's always walking outside and always goes to the teacher's lounge for a little talk time. And so we ran towards him. Just as we ran towards him, I can almost see his sad face. He's always in a bad mood. ALWAYS!
"Hey Dan!" Marucho says and then he notices that he is in a bad mood.
Marucho then asks: "Why are you in a bad mood?"
Julie adds: "Is there something wrong?"
"No." Dan says. "I'm fine. Don't worry about me." And then Dan starts to stare at me. Why? Am I involved in something?
"Why are you staring at me like that?" I ask. "Am I involved in something?"
"No. Nothing." Dan says. "I was just…um…just…"
"Just what? Pervert!" I ask him.
Then Dan starts to frown and asks me. "What did you just say to me?"
"I said." I draw closer to him and then I shout at him: "PERVERT!"
"Whoa." Dan says. "I'm not a pervert."
"Oh, yeah?" I say to him. "You're always been a pervert since first year. You're always started to put jokes on me."
"Am not." Dan says.
"Am too." I say to him back.
He repeatedly says: "Am not!"
"Am too!" I said to him repeatedly.
"Okay guys! That's enough." Julie stopped the fight. "This is not a boxing ring!"
Marucho adds: "Guys, we might hear us."
"It is too late now, Marucho." Julie says. "We've been staring at us since the fight started." Students from every corner of the library have been staring at us since the fighting began. But I don't care about that.
"I don't care about that." I say to Julie and Marucho. "All I wanted to hear is his explanation on why he's such in a bad mood." Dan walks away, leaving the three of us behind. I was about to follow him until Julie grabbed my arm.
"Come on, Runo." Julie says. "This is going too far."
"Yeah." Marucho adds. "Maybe he has some personal matters in mind. We do not want to disturb him, do we?"
Well, I guess, Marucho is right. I do not want to disturb him. Maybe he has some personal issues in mind that the three of us aren't involved. But why is he staring at me? I just want to know. I'm not eavesdropping, am I?
"I just wanted to ask him why is he upset." I explain.
"I know." Marucho says. "But we don't want this fight to be worse, right?"
Julie adds. "It's better to just…" Julie pauses for a second. Then, she turns around and noticed Dan grabbing his books from his bag. He's still frowning. By then, he starts to study with the head down and putting his two hands on his forehead. She continues: "…leave him be."
So I nodded. "I guess you're right."
"Phew. Now that's over, I can almost feel my stomach growling." Julie says.
"Me too." Marucho says.
"Same here." I say to them. "Let's eat at the cafeteria."
Both Julie and Marucho agreed and we went outside and head to the cafeteria. But wait, if Dan is at the library, where's Shun? I wonder where he gone off to. Dan and Shun both went to the cafeteria to have some lunch there. Maybe he's still in the cafeteria and I'm sure of it.
= SHUN'S POV =
I really hate him! I really hate Daniel! I just want to join Runo in the band. She is really good at singing. Maybe she could be the lead singer for our band. But I don't understand why Dan doesn't want her to join the band. Why? Why doesn't he want her to join in? Maybe he has some secrets surrounding him. Those are the few things that I want to know while I was walking through the hallways of the school. The hallways are empty. It should've been full of students walking to and fro, especially during school days. But it changed when the principal announced that there was a snowstorm raging in through parts of Illinois – including Chicago. It was like a "haunted house" here.
As usual, some students wanted to stay inside the classrooms to talk or to plan for their projects after the exams. Others wanted to stay inside the classroom just wanted to hang out or chat with their crushes. I'm so disgusted at them.
I don't want to go to the library after what happened at the cafeteria. I guess Dan is there, but I'm just letting him decide whether to put Runo in the band or not. Anyways, back to my point of view.
As I went downstairs to the first floor of the school's main building, I notice that the door of one classroom was left open. I look up and I see the sign "Room 114". After that, I look at another sign – this time it is at the door. The sign says like this: "Third Year Section 3 Homeroom. Home of the popular cheerleading team and the true champion in basketball!" Wow, maybe this is one of the most popular sections of all high school year levels. I just remembered that this section also awarded as "The Most Disciplined Section" last September by our principal. We, Fourth Year Section 2, won second place followed by Third Year Section 5 and First Year Section 7. In this high school, we have a total of 23 sections. Yup, 23 sections! First Year has 7 sections, Second Year has 6 sections, and both Third and Fourth Year have 5 sections each. So I went inside the classroom since no one is there. When I looked inside, the classroom was left untidy. There is an open window, causing the snow to fall down on the floor. The lights were open and the chairs were messy. I thought this is the most disciplined section. I looked at the blackboard and I saw some of the marks left not erased. There are some marks like "Dawn X Ash", "Admit it Ash that you like Dawn", and there is another one in a nice handwriting that says "Whoever writes that should be punished – Dawn B." There is another mark in the center of the blackboard that says: "Woohoo. Exams postponed as of 7am today. You may go out whatever you want."
There is also a drawing illustrates a girl wearing a navy tank top and a pink mini skirt with a bonnet on her head and a spike haired boy wearing a black tshirt and a pair of jeans. They are joined together by a reddish pinkish heart. At the bottom of the drawing it writes: "Ash Ketchum loves Dawn Berlitz. Admit it!" I said it to myself: "Wow. Love is in the air all right." Well, who knows maybe these two have become lovebirds since they met. And who are Ash Ketchum and Dawn? I believe these two will make a better couple.
All in all there were 26 brown armchairs inside this classroom and 6 of those chairs have bags on it. These were old chairs but the school administrators said that they wanted to paint those chairs to make it new again. And so they did – at all classrooms in this school. And it's not only brown. Every section, they painted those chairs with different colors – such as green, blue, yellow, and red – representing different year levels. So I went into one of these chairs and I saw one armchair with scribbles all around it. Talk about vandalism. I also saw a writing that says: "This is A.K.'s chair. Do not sit on it or else…" To finish it off, he put an angry face at the end of his sentence. His bag was nice though. The color of his bag is dark green with decorations around it. I wanted to look for details about this guy, so I sit on his chair. I don't care about his rules for sitting on his chair. Besides, it's not his property. It's the school's property.
As I look for details, I saw a pin sticking outside his bag. It is a pin showing a picture of a guy just like the drawing on the blackboard. But on this picture, he looks different. The picture showing his head wearing a red and black cap with a logo that looks just like a ball. But it is a different ball. It has a circle at the center of it. I opened the zipper of the bag. When I looked inside his bag, I saw books stacked inside it. Then, I notice in his bag something flicker. So I looked further and the flicker was just his cellphone. Or is it? So I took it out. "Wow." I said to myself. "That's one interesting cellphone." His cellphone was different. The size is thinner and its shape is a small rectangle. I accidentally pull it upwards and it is a sliding type cellphone. I clicked one of the buttons and the screen started to turn on.
After that, there is a voice saying: "Welcome, Ash Ketchum." So I said to myself once more: "So this is Ash Ketchum's cellphone." In his wallpaper, I saw the picture of himself carrying an unknown creature. That creature looks just like a lizard but it is different. He has a leaf sticking out of his mouth. That's not the lizard I know when I visited the zoo. Then, it displays a message saying: "A video message from your mother." So I opened the message and it shows her mother wearing a ponytail, obviously. She also wears a pink shirt, dress or whatever it is. And then the video message begins: "Ash, dear. Are you okay in there? I hope you're okay. Because the weather announcer announced this afternoon that the blizzard will last for a couple of hours. I wish you're safe inside. Take care honey. Love you." And it ended with a kiss. I thought it was me but it is for Ash. I disgusted myself as the message ends. "Talk about being mama's boy." I said to myself.
I looked around the classroom and I saw no one looking from the classroom's door. And still it is left open. So instead, I closed the door and even the windows, which is still open when I came here. I wonder what's inside his cellphone or whatever that is. But I don't want to eavesdrop myself so I put the cellphone back to where it came from. When I looked inside the bag once more, I saw a bunch of little balls with a circle at the center of it. I saw them in awe. What cute balls he have? So I close the zipper tightly showing no one opened the bag without permission. Well, at least I know really well about this person. Sort of. So I stood up and looked the other bags as well. One chair also writes: "This is Dawn's chair. Property, shmoperty. You can sit on my chair whenever you like. I'm not going to offend you or anything."
Good thing, this chair really knows that this is school's property. So I sat on it. As I sat on her chair, I saw her picture sticking at the armchair. It shows a picture of her that also looks just the same like the drawing at the blackboard. Her hair is long and blue-colored, too. She has a bonnet on her head and also wears a navy sleeveless shirt and a mini-skirt, too. And boy, that picture is dirty. I don't want to remove it because you know it's hers. Just like Mr. Ash's bag, I also peeked in to Dawn's bag as well. She has tons of stuff, including her books, her ballpens, her paper, even her folders. "Wow, does she really need all of this stuff?" I thought to myself. "Talk about grade school." I was surprised when I saw this expensive tablet phone. Wait, this is not just an ordinary tablet. It's an iPad! "Woah! You're a rich kid!" I said to myself. "It maybe expensive but I really want to take a look at this." I clicked one of the apps on her iPad. Talk about without permission. When I slide the tab, I notice an app called "Angry Birds". Wait a minute, I heard this one before. It's a game when you launch a bird using a launching device, fly it in the air, and smash onto one of the blocks to pulverize (or rather destroy) the enemy bird inside the blocks. You will earn points when you defeat the birds at each round. I installed it in my android phone so I don't wanna use it in this iPad. I mean, HER iPad. Instead, I surf the internet using this baby with the help of the school's wifi connection. It's still on even in the extreme weather like this. Then, I heard a sound coming in from the door. But who cares about it anyway? So I keep on surfing and surfing until I saw three or four black shadows on the floor.
"What do you think you're doing?" one voice said. "You know that's not yours!" I looked up and I saw four people looking at me while I'm surfing at the Internet through the iPad, which is not MINE! I saw two girls and two boys keep on staring at me. "Well?" a girl asked me. When I saw that girl, I noticed that she was the same from the drawing in the blackboard and the picture from the armchair. She is a blue long haired girl wearing a bonnet on her head. And this time, her clothes were different from the drawing. She wears a black t-shirt with a message says "Heartbreaker" and a pair of skinny jeans. She also has a red scarf wrapping all around her neck and wears a pair of yellow sandals for her feet. "Um…" I nervously said to her. "Dawn, I think he's not from our section." One boy said. The boy was also familiar. He was the same from the drawing in the blackboard. His hair is spiky and wore a red cap on his head. But his clothes were different. He wears a checkered tshirt and a pair of denim jeans. He wears a pair of Nike sport shoes. "I know." She replied back. "S-sorry about that." I handed it over to her. "I believe that's yours." She quickly grabbed the iPad and thanked me. "T-thanks."
While I paused the conversation, she quickly inspects her iPad to check whether I touched her personal information or I played games from it. All I did was to surf in the Internet. I should've used my android phone next time. Then, Dawn looked at my I.D. I know, my I.D. picture looks really ugly. I took a picture of myself creating a strange look. Dawn chuckled as she looked at it. And the conversation continued: "You're a fourth year, right?" she asked me.
"Yeah." I replied.
"Well, it's nice to meet you." She said to me. "What's your name?"
"Shun." I shake hands with her afterwards. "Shun Kazami. 16 years of age."
"I'm Dawn." She says. "Dawn Berlitz. 15 years. Turning 16 on January."
"Nice to meet you, Dawn Berlitz."
"Hi. The name's Misty." she said. "Misty Waterflower. Also 16."
"Nice to meet you, Misty Waterflower." I shook hands with her afterwards. Misty Waterflower was an orange long-haired girl wearing a yellow tank top with printed flowers all over it. She also wore a pair of skinny jeans just like Dawn. For her feet, she wore a pair of rubber shoes.
Another man appeared and came near me. "Paul." He whispered. "Paul Shinji. 15." Now he's one shy type kind of a person. Paul Shinji is a purple haired type of person wearing a purple jacket and a pair of black pants. He also wears a pair of Sketchers rubber shoes. Talk about being casual. I shook hands with him while I greet him friendly. "Nice to meet you, Paul Shinji."
"Guess you're the last one left." I said to the guy wearing a red cap.
"Yup." He said. "The name's Ash Ketchum. 16 years of age." He shook hands with me afterwards.
I greeted him: "Nice to meet you. Ash Ketchum."
"Wait a minute." I thought to myself. "Are those guys from the drawings in the blackboard? Do Ash and Dawn really are meant to be? I need to ask them."
"So you two are from the blackboard." I pointed the blackboard. "You really are meant to be together." Both Dawn and Ash blush their faces proving that these things aren't real. Well for me, I don't care as long as they tell the truth.
She rushed towards the blackboard. "No-no-no-no-no" she lied. "T-t-t-t-those t-t-t-things-s-s aren't t-t-t-tru-u-u-u-ue." So she wiped the blackboard with her bare hands, making her nervous. "Hehehehe. You're just mistaken, Shun."
"I see." I said. "I think I eavesdropped myself a little."
"You're not. You're not." Misty opposed my statement. And then, she came closer to me: "You see, they really ARE meant to be together." That sentence teased both Ash and Dawn.
"Stop it!" Dawn exclaimed while wiping on the blackboard with her bare hands. "This is making me MAD! LITERALLY! You're the one who wrote that in the first place so you should erase that mark before you leave."
Misty looked at Dawn and said to her. "You know there's an eraser in front of you, Dawn."
Dawn turned around and she saw an eraser on top of the teacher's desk. "Oooops. Sorry." She chuckled afterwards.
"You need to admit that you like him." Misty said to Dawn. "After all, he's just beside you."
"Oh yeah?" Ash declared and asked. "Well why do you hang out with that playboy of yours, Gary Oak?"
"I'm not hanging out with Gary, oh no no." She replied. "He's my best friend, NOT my BOYFRIEND!" She chuckled afterwards.
"Who is Gary Oak?" I asked. "Why is he a playboy?" After that, they stared at me and kept their mouths shut for a few seconds. So I said: "Okay? I understand."
"You really must've met him for a long time, I guess." I concluded.
"Yup." Everybody said.
I confessed: "I really don't know him yet. Can you please tell me?" I added: "And can you please stop staring at me like that? You guys are really weird."
So they stopped the staring and began the conversation, instead.
"You see." Misty explained. "Ash Ketchum right here…" She pointed to Ash and he waved his hand. "…met Gary Oak since he was a kid. He lives in a town called Pallet Town from the Kanto Region. The truth is, Ash is a Pokemon master."
"Pokemon master?" I was confused at that point. "I really don't know that one, but tell me more about that."
She continued: "Pokemon, in short for Pocket Monsters, is one of these creatures which are commonly known here on Earth"
"Really?" I asked. "Go on."
"We kept these 'creatures' in a special device called a Pokeball." She said and Ash handed these "Pokeballs" to her. "Wow I can't believe they have interesting devices like these." I thought to myself. "So that's why the balls have differences from the ball I actually see in normal places. Basketball, Volleyball, Tennis Ball. But this ball is different."
"These Pokeballs are designed to capture a Pokemon and release it if there is a battle or other emergencies. Ash Ketchum mastered these creatures and also battled with the gym leaders far and wide. So he becomes a Pokemon Master."
"Wow." I said. "So how did he meet Gary Oak?"
"Well," She replied. "he met him from a laboratory of one of the world famous Pokemon professor, Professor Oak."
"So why is he a playboy?" I asked.
"He really falls in love with girls." She said. "I really don't care about him since he is addicted to girls."
"Talk about being a ladies man, huh?" I asked.
"Yup." She said then continued the story. "So he started his journey to be a Master and during his journey, he met three gorgeous women - Me, May, and Dawn."
"Who's May?" I asked.
"May – in short for May Maple – is a friend of mine." She said. "Like I said earlier, she is one of Ash's friends. She lives in a region called Sinnoh but moved here to Chicago. She's 16 years of age just like me and she is a Pokemon coordinator."
"So how do you meet him?"
She continued: "I met him during fishing in a pond. He took my bike and suddenly left off. He met May after some troubles with her Pokemon. Dawn, on the other hand, met him after Ash right here lost his Pikachu from a battle against Team Rocket – the most notorious crime trio when it comes to snatching Pokemon. They almost snatch Pikachu and his Pokemon so that they can create some kind of weapon. I don't want to summarize the whole part of it."
"Wow, interesting story." I concluded.
"Yup." She concluded as well. "Interesting story indeed."
"So why do you came here to Chicago?" I asked.
She said: "Well, after Ash Ketchum became a Pokemon Master, I thought to myself: 'What if we could go back to normal life and just forget this stuff?' To tell you the truth, I just don't want to live my life battling anymore and so I said to my mom. 'What if I could go abroad and forget about this life as a Pokemon coordinator?' And so my mom allowed me to go abroad. I picked Chicago because of the busy streets and the wonderful skyscrapers. I just want to keep myself relaxed for a while. One cold day, I met Dawn and May in a supermarket. They were buying fruits and seafoods. So I rushed at them and they were so happy to see me. They cried and hugged me at the same time. I also met Ash, Paul, Drew, and Gary at the door of the supermarket. They were really excited to see me. Ash, Drew, and Gary said their parents really wanted to go abroad to study to a good and world-class education. Until now, I don't know the reason why Paul came here. He was quiet back then."
"Wow, wonderful story." I said.
"Yup." She said. "That story has a happy ending."
"But what about your real home?" I asked. "I guessed you guys missed them?"
"Well, yeah." Dawn said. "We miss our real home. But we love Chicago. We love the great sights and sounds here and cause the culture of every citizen here. We wonder what is it like to be an American citizen since our originating nationality is Japanese."
"I see." I said. "So guys, do you want to eat?" Again, they exchanged faces and this time the 4 whispered and came closer to each other. It took about a few seconds to decide until they came their final decision.
"Yup." The four agreed.
Misty said: "Actually, I was about to tell you guys earlier that my stomach is growling."
Ash added: "I also feel the same way, too."
"Me three." Dawn said. "And Paul felt it too, I think?" I looked at Paul and still he is still keeping his mouth shut. Maybe he has "butterflies in his stomach".
"Well, what are you guys waiting for?" I said. "Let's go. Let's not keep the food waiting."
So the four packed their bags and left the classroom. I joined them and started to walk going to the cafeteria. I wonder if my friends are still at the library, just in case. Maybe they're waiting for me there.
= END OF CHAPTER THREE =
Whew. That was one long chapter three. Keep updated to this story regularly because I'm going to start my chapter 4 next right after this. In the meantime, please review about this chapter. If you have any thoughts, comments, and suggestions about this chapter, please let me know. I'm going to post your reviews in my next chapter. Thanks!