Anita didn't skimp on her home cooking. It was a delicious-looking meal of roast pork, served with a selection of green salads and some form of mashed potatoes Brock didn't recognize. It was expertly prepared, and Ash wondered if they were having a party that just happened to be on the day they came by. Wouldn't be the strangest coincidence he'd seen.
The kitchen where the food was served looked every bit as homey as the rest of the orphanage. The entire place looked as though it had been plucked straight from the 1950's, with framed pictures and flower vases on old tables. Everyone sat down at a large table with a tablecloth. Anita, Ash, Brock, Dawn, Wally and several other children. They all wore fairly plain clothes, functional rather than decorative. The boys were in shirts and jeans, the girls in small dresses. A lot of them were Ash's age or younger. There were a few older boys in what resembled school uniforms, keeping an eye on the younger children.
Ash made a move for the potatoes, but his hand was gently slapped away by Anita. "Now, now, dear. We must say grace first."
Ash blinked. "Um, Grace?"
Brock and Dawn groaned, but Anita just laughed. "Not like that, dear. Just...fold your hands like this, close your eyes, and be silent."
Ash was still a little confused, but he did as Anita asked. So did everyone else, and the head of the orphanage began speaking.
"Lord, we ask a blessing for this meal and for this day. We thank you for delivering Wally from danger, and we thank you for the help of our guests, Ash, Dawn, and Brock. We pray that you may keep your hand over them and us, that you may sustain us, and that you may strengthen us. So be it, Amen." Once it was finished, she opened her eyes and smiled. "There. Now go ahead and eat, dears."
With that out of the way, everyone helped themselves to Anita's meal. It was every bit as delicious as it looked. Ash had been gorging on it for a few minutes when he noticed something.
"Hey...you guys are really quiet..."
Anita sighed. "A lot of my dears are terribly shy. Especially around Trainers...like I said, they're deathly afraid of those Pokemon."
"That's too bad..." Ash mused, looking around. These kids were very quiet, keeping their heads down while they ate. However, a couple of them looked up and smiled when they noticed Ash was looking at them. The smiles relaxed Ash.
Dawn tried to talk to a small brunette beside her. "Hey...what's your name?" She asked.
The little girl didn't answer, turning away from Dawn.
"Huh?"
"It's okay, sweetie." Anita spoke, looking at the girl in question. "Tell her your name."
The girl obediently looked up at Dawn. Her black hair was almost covering her green eyes. "M-my name is Anne." she smiled nervously.
"Hello, Anne. I'm Dawn. It's nice to meet you."
Anne nodded fitfully. "Y-yeah. It's nice...I'm sorry." She suddenly sniffled.
Dawn blinked. "You're sorry? For what?"
"It's nothing." Anita interjected. "My dears are just not used to talking over dinner."
"That's odd..."
"Don't worry too much about it. Just enjoy the meal. I'll show you where you'll be sleeping."
Although dinner was rather awkward at times, none of the children were nervous about staying at Anita's orphanage for the night. Any fears or suspicions they had were calmed when they arrived at the guest bedroom.
Just like everything else in the orphanage, the guest bedroom was incredibly homey. The beds weren't from 4-star hotels, but they were large enough to be very comfy. Framed pictures of butterflies were hung on the walls, and there was a small balcony that let the guests get some fresh air.
It was definitely a nice place to sleep, and Dawn fell asleep in her bed pretty quickly. Brock had to find and use the bathroom first, and when he came back he saw Ash on the balcony, looking at the stars.
Brock sighed. "Still not sleeping?"
Ash shook his head. "You just noticed?" he sighed.
Brock pulled up a chair. "You never asked for more sleep pills, I thought..."
"It's not Mashura." Ash stopped him. "In fact I...I've actually been sleeping without the pills...It's just...the last few days have been a little...draining."
"What do you mean?"
Ash paced for a minute, glancing around the room for a second. "It's not...it's not Mashura. Or Kalville, or...I mean, sure I've been thinking about those places a lot, but...something else's been bugging me. Some...someone else."
Brock blinked. "Someone else?"
Ash smiled ruefully. "Aheh...it's stupid really. After everything, I'm hung up over..."
Brock sighed, figuring it out. "Paul."
Ash gritted his teeth and clenched his fists for a second. "Yeah, Paul."
The two boys were interrupted by a gentle knock on the door. Brock got up and answered the door. It was Anita, carrying a server with a plate of cookies and three glasses of milk.
"To help you sleep, dears." Anita explained as she set the tray down on the small table by the beds. Ash and Brock quietly thanked her, not wanting to wake Dawn. She smiled, understanding, and left the room.
Brock sat himself on the bed beside the milk and cookies. "It's not like you to get so bummed out over one loss. At least, not like this..."
Ash was still pacing. "It's different with that jerk. He...how do I say it, he...he's everything I hate about everything I love! He treats his Pokemon like crap, treats everybody else the same way, he just...you saw what happened at the tag team tournament. I mean…you saw how he treated Chimchar!"
Brock nodded. Paul had overstrained that fire monkey the night before a big fight, so much do that it needed to stay in the hospital for the day. But the next day he sent Chimchar out to battle anyway, and when it froze up against a Pokemon it was rightfully scared of, he stopped giving any commands to it, leaving it to suffer in the fight without any guidance or support whatsoever. He released it afterwards, calling it 'pathetic'. In Ash's eyes, that was the worst thing a trainer could do.
"He thinks I'm weak just because I actually treat my Pokemon like my friends. Like it somehow makes them weaker if I don't treat them like...he does. I was gonna prove him wrong." Ash continued to vent, being careful not to wake Dawn. "But then he...he beats me! He walks all over me, and it looks like he's right!" Ash was getting more and more frustrated, almost pulling out his hair. "You know what he said to me, after the fight? 'I hope you think of this as a wake-up call, you pathetic weakling'! Like I'm some amateur and HE'S the expert!"
Brock took a bite out of one of the cookies. "Yeah...I've been meaning to talk to you about that..."
Ash blinked. "What-what do you mean?"
Brock sighed. It was not gonna be easy to tell Ash this. "Well...um...truth is, you made a lot of...mistakes in that fight."
"Mistakes?!" Ash angrily demanded.
"Like...like...sending out Grotle against his Honchcrow when you still had Staraptor. You...you should've known better than that."
Ash tried to come up with a retort, but couldn't.
Brock couldn't hold back a tired yawn. "Actually...haahhh, the truth is, you haven't been doing so hot this entire time. You've been making a lot of dumb mistakes in some battles, mistakes you shouldn't be making. And you can't...haahhh...you can't blame Mashura, you've been making them since we started here."
Ash blinked. "Yeah?" his eyes looked around, thinking back on some of his recent losses. "...yeah..." he had to agree.
"It's like something else is..." Brock let out a bigger yawn. "Something else is bothering you. I get that Kalville isn't helping you sleep, but it shouldn't...shouldn't be affecting your battling sk-skills..."
Ash turned away for a second, thinking. Brock was right. It wasn't Kalville or Mashura that was hindering his skills lately. If it was, then he should've done a lot worse in the Hoenn tournament. There was something else that was affecting his skills. He sighed and turned around to tell Brock...
Only to see him fast asleep on top of the bed.
Ash groaned with exasperation. What, Brock was too tired to actually hear him out? He could criticize Ash, but couldn't be bothered to actually listen to why he was so preoccupied?! Start talking, and then just fall asleep?!
Still...they were all pretty tired. And the truth is, Ash's story could wait until morning. Maybe a good night's rest was in order.
Yawning himself, Ash went over to the last bed and laid down. Hope I can sleep tonight. I really need it. With that in mind, Ash closed his eyes.
James and Meowth hadn't stopped yawning since the sun had gone down. "Jess, can we PLEASE stop now? We're tired!"
"Just a little further..." Jessie tried to encourage.
"Dat's what you said back dere!" Meowth snapped. "How much is a 'little furtha'?"
"Right here!" Jessie skidded to a halt, causing everyone else to bump into her and send them all crashing to the ground.
"GET OFF ME YOU OAFS!" Jessie roared from the bottom of the pile. Her two friends obeyed quickly. "Look there!" she pointed. "The twerps are in there!"
Sure enough, they had arrived at Anita's orphanage. A lot of the lights had been shut off, but the building was unmistakable. From where they were standing, they could see the yard and bunkhouse, but nobody would notice them.
James groaned. "How do you know they're..."
"We know they came this way, and the twerps wouldn't turn down a free bed and meal."
"Neither would we..." James commented. "But what makes you…"
"Besides, look!" she pointed to a little yellow Pokemon lying down by the bunkhouse. "There's Pikachu! Right there for the taking!" Pikachu was sleeping in front of the bunkhouse door, right next to a bowl of milk.
"That's nice..." James yawned, trying hard to keep his eyes open.
Jessie tried to slap him awake. "Wake up, James! We can grab him and be gone before anyone notices!"
"Except her." Meowth suddenly piped up tiredly.
Sure enough, Marge had just walked outside and towards the bunkhouse. Very quickly and very furiously, the blonde woman picked up the sleeping Pokemon and tucked him into the bunkhouse. A second later, she left the bunkhouse, locking the door and running back to the orphanage.
Jessie gritted her teeth. "Ngh! Come on you two, we can't pass this up! We just need to..."
The second she turned around, she saw that both of her compatriots had fallen asleep.
She started twitching with rage and irritation. "What-are-you-idiots-doing?! Wake up! We can't pass this uh-huuuuuuuh-huuuuuuuh." On finding that she couldn't hold back a long yawn, she gave up and sighed. "Fine. First thing in the morning." she groaned, lying down on the ground beside the rest of her team and falling asleep.
Pleasant dreams, everyone. They're the last ones you'll have.
Read and review, guys. I'm not putting up another chapter until I get some feedback.
