I felt that since there are so many breaks in fall and winter I'll update twice this month, but the next update is going to be a little different, so look out for it. ;D

I'll probably end up posting it on my birthday (Friday, December 28) by the way, so watch out for it and enjoy!

Chapter 7

Unbeknownst to May, the girls had signed them all up for planning the Halloween dance. May had seriously hoped she could withdraw, but all sign-ups were final unless it was a serious situation and May's reason was because she was too lethargic, yeah, not very convincing. Although, at the time she didn't think about her homework and so she turned in late assignments like never before.

On the other hand, the dance was being held at a ballroom in the school and it was turning out great. Since the theme was bugs, it was a little hard for them at first to think of anything, but a few other people on the dance committee gave some really creative ideas, so the dance perfecting process was started!

The only guy who signed up was a jock named, Tyler-who only joined because of a cheerleader named Lindsay-gave the really great idea of a haunted jungle type of thing except instead of a jungle he suggested giant grass since most bugs were smaller than grass.

Although, Dawn and Leaf had to change it to the entrance of the dance, so people could actually dance around on the dance floor. After that was considered Marina, Leaf, and a girl named Bo went into music and food. Next, Dawn, Tyler, and Lindsay were assigned decorations. Lastly, May and everyone else were assigned with everything else, which meant advertising, cleaning, etc.

"Who can even decently draw a stick figure here? Anyone? I couldn't draw to save my life." Ashley said pessimistically.

"May's good at it! I've seen her doodles in math!" A girl who indeed sat close to May in math, Marissa blurted out. May ducked down her head and blushed; her doodles were always a little embarrassing to show, so the fact that she now knew that Marissa had been peeking at them was a little unsettling for her.

"I'm not that good, honest!" May replied waving around her hands frantically.

"Anything's better than me! There other three that ditched us for cleaning already left us with everything else. What a pain in the arsenal they are." Ashley joked.

"Don't say those kinds of things!" Marissa glared even though it wasn't the real cuss.

"Oh, relax! You don't have to be so uptight about those kinds of things. We are in high school and all." Ashley waved her off.

"Fine. May, so do you agree to be our artist for advertising? I know Ashley's a pro at working computers, she's such a techno junkie!" Marissa said clearly showing that she was close to Ashley.

"What about you?" May asked.

"I'll do the letters! I'll make them really cute!" Marissa said brightly.

"I don't know… This is a Halloween dance…" Ashley butt in.

"You're right, hey; do you think it'd be okay if I asked someone who isn't part of the dance committee to do the letters? She's really good at creepy things!" Marissa said after a pause.

"Well, I guess you could, but…I don't know…It's just….Weird." Ashley replied.

"Oh, well! C'mon May! Let's go find her! I think she's staying after school for her friend or something!" Marissa pulled Ashley and May along to a room May wasn't very familiar with. The dance room and there she saw it. Drew laughing and smiling. At least until he turned to see who had entered the room.

"I knew it! She is here! Lisa, can you please, please, please, please do me a huge favor?" Marissa somehow went from a eureka moment to a homeless beggar. The music stopped playing and suddenly everyone was staring at either Marissa or Lisa.

"Sorry to interrupt, but um, carry on." Marissa smiled awkwardly and as soon as the music began again she ripped Lisa outside into the hallway.

"I kind of need that arm, jeez, you popped my whole arm and socket off with that!" Lisa rubbed her arm.

"Sorry, it's just that I really need to know if you could do me this huge favor." Marissa had gone back to homeless beggar mode.

"Depends on what it is," Lisa squinted suspiciously.

"You know how that dance is in a few weeks? Well, we were assigned advertising or something and I don't know how to draw creepy letters. Could you teach, do it for me, or something?" More of the homeless beggar mode continued.

"Dude, do you know how much homework I have to do after this?! I'm going to writhe in agony and curl into a ball of boredom." Lisa groaned dramatically.

"You liar, I have the same AP classes-except math-as you, but different periods and I don't even have that much homework as I usually do! Just do it! You love drawing! You even said so, right?" Marissa said.

"If I do it will you leave me alone?" Lisa rolled her eyes, but her lips were formed into a sincere smile.

"Yes! I knew you were too nice to leave me to decorate a Halloween poster with cute and girly!" Marissa cheered and hugged Lisa, which she hesitantly returned awkwardly. May, still not sure on everything didn't say anything and just stood there. Although, May wasn't completely focused on what she was doing. She was still thinking about what she had recently seen. Drew laughing and it was cute. May's list for Drew grew even longer and for once she added something nice… Cute.

"Well, bro, I have to leave. See you tomorrow. I hope you get eaten by menacing oxen." Lisa stuck out her tongue and went back into the room.

"Fine, leave me without a hug, poophead!" Ashley pouted. Lisa rolled her eyes and shut the door.

"Well, May, I leave a design to you too, so get to work! You and Lisa are in charge of 3/4 of the posters. Ashley and I are going to be the rest and doing all the stuff to print it out or something." Marissa said.

"Hey, guys come with me to my locker to see if I have everything I need." Ashley ran off to her locker and Marissa started walking towards the locker.

"Let's stop on the way for my locker. I have to pick up my piccolo anyway." Marissa took a bobby pin from inside her brown leather bag and clipped back her insanely short dark brown hair.

"There. That's so much better." Marissa quickly turned her lock muttering a number or two out loud. She took out a red (math), blue (language) and green (history) book out; all, which were heavier due to the higher level of difficulty. However, her math book was a little lighter since she only took regular.

"Need some help?" May asked realizing she was just procrastinating her homework again.

"Sure, but shouldn't you be getting your stuff too? We're going to leave soon." Marissa forcefully shoved the books into her bag and met up with Ashley who had a locker in the next hallway.

"Okay, I'll see you guys tomorrow!" She watched as they got into the expensive white limo and drive away before she started walking, but of course it happened to be the time Lisa, Felicity, Simon, and Drew all came out. May started walking faster, but alas she was spotted.

"May, do you need a ride?" Simon called out, which was a little out of character.

"No, it's okay." May waved it off.

"You sure you won't get lost this time?" Drew remarked.

"Yes!" May grumbled and went even faster.

"Too bad, I heard it's going to rain or even snow." He shrugged. As he said it, she looked up at the sky to see the gray clouds ready to release the water droplets.

"Fine, if you insist." May said heading back to a shiny Bugatti. A car, average people look at in magazines and Google just to drool over. Besides, it's not like anyone had to find out about this ride. It was just a single ride. With Drew. Simon. Felicity. And Lisa.

"Stubborn brat," Drew muttered as he got in with the other 3.

"Oh, hey, Flissy's mom said you wanted to borrow that butterfly dress we made, so go ahead. I wasn't planning on wearing it in my lifetime, it would've looked better on someone else anyway. It was too big for Felicity and tulle just makes me look like I'm seeping fat flabs through the holes." Lisa said.

"Okay? Thanks. By the way how do you know Drew?" May questioned. To be honest Drew didn't seem like the type of person to even have friends. He was always a lone wolf at school, sitting by himself at lunch and hardly making any human contact at school, but for some reason Drew looked so normal around the 3.

"He's our neighbor. Do you know what kinds of things his sister tells my brothers?" Simon complained.

"Relax, Adrian doesn't care. Matt on the other hand, you should probably keep away. He's probably the type that's still innocent." Drew turned a corner.

"True, but I'm pretty sure your little sister's got a crush on him, just saying," Simon replied.

"More like Matt's got a crush on Sophie," Drew snorted.

"Jeez, you two sure are annoying." Lisa said as the car stopped at May's house.

"Bye, thanks for the ride." May rushed out the door and tried to not be seen by anyone in case anyone was watching. May unlocked the door with a spare key and saw Misty and Max battling it out on Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

"Hey, how was that, um, thing?" Misty mashed the buttons on the Wii remote randomly and KO'd Max's character, Toon Link from Zelda.

"The dance committee was a pain. I'm assigned as advertisement and I have to draw out the posters and help design the tickets." May sighed and retrieved a sketch pad from her room. Although, she ended up looking at the Petalburg Modeling Company's website and at their upcoming dresses that were going to be modeled by her friends because she ended up with artist's block.

May looked at a one-strap red and black one with a rose for a strap, the red bust was made of a shiny satin, and the black bottom was a simple sleek knee length design that made May have hearts in her eyes as she saved a photo of the design onto her red laptop.

The next one that caught her eye had a red belt with a gold rectangle buckle underneath a white heart shaped bust covered with red roses and over a white bottom that went a little past knee length with the same rose design, however in a faded out look.

The next one was a little a long ensemble that dragged at the feet that was a fire truck red. The neckline was again in the shape of a heart, but the dress was made to look like the whole dress was one large bow with the bow starting out from the top. The center of the bow had silver sparkles making it shine along with the bright red material.

Lastly (May had to eat dinner), she found a mid-thigh length dress that was a bright apple red. On the right side of the dress underneath the bust the material was shaped into a flower, much like a rose. May, being crazy about them saved the designs into her downloads and went to stuff her face.

"You know what? Screw it! Give me a piece of that hamburger!" Dawn shot across the table and yanked May's triple cheeseburger out of her hand and took a gigantic bite. Meanwhile, a blushing guy approached the table with a red tulip in his hand.

"Um excuse me, may I talk to Marina?" His face turned brighter and darker as his eyes found the mesmerizing floor.

"Yeah, what for Caleb?" Marina stood from her seat and followed Caleb to a somewhat desolate area where any nearby quidnunc was trying to eavesdrop desperately.

May and her friends watched anxiously as Caleb gave a sad smile and nod. Marina headed back giving an 'I'm going to pretend no one's looking at me' look. Dawn was the first to ask, "Did another guy ask you to the dance?"

"Yeah."

"Did you reject him?"

"Yeah."

"Seriously? If you keep on rejecting people left and right-in a polite way of course-you're going to end up going all by yourself. That's what the 10th guy that's asked you out today?" Leaf pointed out. Marina shrugged as if it weren't a big deal to her, which it probably wasn't.

"We all know who she wants to go with," Dawn elbowed Marina gently. Marina shook her head slightly and shrugged.

"That reminds me, who are you going with May?" Leaf smirked.

May gave it a long pause thinking of Brendan, but shrugged, "No one, I guess?"

"There was a pause. A pause definitely means an 'I'm madly in love with someone.'" Leaf pointed 2 fingers at May and rubbed a finger across the 2 meaning, 'shame on you.'

"Pause definitely means yes! Tell me! I'm dying to play matchmaker with someone!" Dawn had entered May's personal bubble causing lots of claustrophobic feelings and May honestly didn't want to tell her that she desperately needed a mint.

"…"

"Spill. Or die," Dawn's not-so-fresh breath got hotter as she hissed.

"…Brendan," May whispered barely audible for even Dawn to hear.

"The one with white hair?" Dawn said loud enough for the rest of the models to hear.

"Brendan? He's cute. You guys would look so cute together, but he's already taken, bummer." Leaf shrugged.

"Don't worry. I'm sure you'll find someone better than him." Marina smiled gently making May feel reassured inside. Marina had that effect.

"Like who? Drew?" May retorted.

"That green haired kid? No offense, but he's a little weird. He doesn't like talking to people at all," Dawn warned.

"Relax; I was just kidding," May said halfheartedly. In truth, May really didn't think Drew was all that strange. He had friends, but secretly and he was nice-ish…sometimes.

"Marina, will you go to the dance with me?" Jimmy shoved a bouquet of daisies wrapped inside a light blue plastic-y paper tied with a baby blue ribbon into Marina's arms.

"Sure, why not?" Marina shrugged calmly. Meanwhile, Dawn and Leaf were covering each other's mouths trying not to (A) scream, (B) tease the farts out of her, or (C) yell, "I knew it!"

"Next time, you should go to your locker before lunch. Jeez, I waited for what seemed like forever," Jimmy rubbed his head.

"I do now. I have nowhere to put this." Marina held up the flawless daisies with slight mildew on the petals.

"Right, I'll go with you." Jimmy and Marina left and Dawn and Leaf uncovered their mouths and let out high pitched squeals that would make dogs go deaf.

"Seriously, how come she gets a happily ever after, Marina's so lucky! I wish I was like that with someone." Leaf gushed. Even May felt jealous of their relationship, but no-o, she was stuck with crushing on a guy who was already taken.

"You both have Paul and Gary, right?" Leaf and Dawn glared in her direction, but alas, their faces were red as ripe tomato berries.

"Be quiet! What if that thing heard you?" Leaf spat turning her head in all directions making sure the 'thing' didn't hear. He didn't, actually he was too busy fending girls' dance requests flirtatiously. He didn't accept a single one, but his face sure was getting close to quite a number of theirs.

"What is he doing?! His face is way too close!" Leaf stomped up to Gary and pulled on his ear.

"Ow, hey, that hurts!" Gary whined. The girls surrounding him dispersed leaving him with just Leaf and a few other jocks who were sitting at the edge thinking that they'd be asked if they were going to be asked by cute girls if they were near Gary.

"Don't break so many girls' hearts! It's sick." Leaf spat. Gary smirked and his face got close enough to Leaf's that no one could hear the-most likely perverted-things he whispered into her ear as her face flushed a scarlet red. She quietly nodded and walked back looking ready to pounce.

"Guys…I'm going to the dance with Gary," Leaf growled.

"Then why don't you sound happy about it?" Dawn poked.

"Do you remember that bet I lost in the summer? The one where he could make me do anything he wanted with me for the first semester? Well, apparently he didn't forget." Leaf sighed.

Another thing I didn't do with them, May thought. They sure did a lot in the summer.

"You should be glad he didn't make you do anything until now. Remember when I used to like Derek?" Dawn asked.

"Oh, yeah, he's the one that made you go to his cosplay thing, right?" Leaf nodded.

"Don't remind me, but yes, that one. Now do you see why it's not that bad going to the dance with Gary? Although, I'm pretty sure you're going to end up enjoying the dance." Dawn winked.

"Whatever. We have to go anyway. We have a shoot today and May's supposed to be helping with the dance. It's a good thing we're a little ahead of everyone." Leaf grabbed her designer leather bag and took out a hand mirror making sure her hair was good. It was a messy haunted mansion no one with brains would enter. Not. It was perfect as usual.

"You guys are ahead? I'm behind! Maybe, I can go find my partners for help right now," Dawn ran away trying to find her partners.

"May? Can I tell you something? I'm pretty sure you've realized that Dawn's sort of everywhere with guys, right? It didn't used to be like this. It's just that in middle school her best friend that she had a crush on since Kindergarten told her that he loved her. I know that's insane, but you know, middle school kids are insane. Anyway, he moved the next year and Dawn kind of went into this state of shock, but for some reason exactly a week later she declared her love to us about this guy who was almost the opposite of him. She would always find some way to date them, but would break up with them a week later. Although for some reason she always ends up back at Paul, so I'm guessing that's a good sign. I should probably go check if I'm ahead of the dance planning to make it in time for the dance, so bye. I'll see you tomorrow! If anything happens you've got my number," With that being said Leaf left. May headed to her classes like the blur it was, a late assignment in almost all of her classes, but when she got to her last class that's when the surprise came. They were holding an official contest. The three judges, an announcer, score board, stage, and seats for the audience.

"I haven't been in a contest in ages," May felt a pang of sudden nostalgia.

"If you're just going to stand there with that passive face there won't be room for you to even be in the contest," Drew stuffed his hands in his pocket and watched his entertainment try to break through the crowd to fill in a spot.

After a minute or so later, "Yes, last spot!" Could be head from the exact same brunette.

"Okay, now, that everyone who could get signed up signed up, let's start! I'll announce the rules in 5 minutes, so make sure you and your Pokémon are ready," Soledad's voice echoed throughout the room.

Marina and Dawn got passes from Soledad to try and get what they could about the dance. May chose her Wartortle for the appeal round and her Venusaur for her battle. May went through her appeal technique twice and Venusaur's moves once before everyone was called to the actual contest. Soledad stepped onto the stage and started speaking into the microphone.

"I know this is the first official contest this year, but the rules are simple. The appeals are first and the battles are second. I'm sure you've all been in a contest, so good luck!" Soledad left the stage and let Vivian take over.

"Today we're seeing some familiar faces! You know what that means! We're going to be hanging onto our seats with anticipation! Let's cheer for our judges! Nurse Joy, Mr. Suzkizo, Mr. Contesta and I'm your announcer Vivian!" The crowd cheered and a few random strangers seemed to be watching too. Probably late minute people who were minding their own businesses and then BAM! Random lady drags a bunch of innocent people to watch a contest they may or may not be interested in.

"Now, that the introduction's over, let's start the contest! Our first contestant is Drew Hayden of LaRousse!" Drew stepped onto the stage looking as confident as ever, which was another thing May had to add to her list of things to describe Drew.

"Flygon use your sandstorm," Flygon started whipping up a tornado of sand except it was a horizontal bar that was too dense to even see the middle.

"Now, use flamethrower," Flygon sent out a swirling flame through the sand burning it to a harder substance known as glass.

"Okay, now finish it off with sunny day," The horizontal tornado stopped and let the small pieces of sediment drop shining on Drew and his Flygon as the sunny day made it seem like a photographer's one and only goal. The crowd cheered, whistled, and whooped as Drew bowed next to his Flygon.

"Remarkable," A 9.2 was shown from Mr. Suzkizo.

"A great performance of moves blending together to make great combinations and the moves alone were well polished," A 9.5 was shown from Mr. Contesta.

"Flygon looked so healthy and strong. The trainer must have also had to have a strong bond to show off that kind of performance," A 9.8 was shown from Nurse Joy making it a total of 28.5 an extremely high score out of 30.

May clutched her fist feeling less confident as she watched inside the room where some coordinators were either really nervous or they were being arrogant and bragging about how they were going to beat this contest with ease and win the grand festival. May happened to be one of the hyper ventilators trying to calm herself and Wartortle watched helplessly as he patted May's back in efforts of a calming effect. Venusaur nudged May and finally let out a vine and gave her a tiny slap saying, "Snap out of it!"

May smiled, "You're right, sorry. It's just that there are so many talented coordinators here it's impossible to not be nervous plus I haven't even been in one for a long time," she said. Wartortle gave her a thumb's up, well, what he could do as a thumb's up. May watched as the second coordinator lose her confidence and have her Pokémon use the wrong move giving her 20 out of 30. A moment later she came crying into the room. May's feeling of nausea, worry, and pessimism came back.

"What's wrong? Don't think you can beat me, May?" Drew laughed.

She squinted her eyes forgetting her feelings except anger, "I'm going to beat you! Just watch me!"

"Okay, whatever you say. You should probably watch out for the other coordinators too, these aren't the typical newbies you see every day," Drew reminded. Together the two watched as some did exceptionally well and an even fewer group slip under the intense pressure making a mistake most couldn't just wing it giving them lower scores indicating the loss of going onto the next round. Lisa got a score of 28.3 scoring second next to Drew and Felicity scored 28 scoring third. When Simon said they were top coordinators he really wasn't kidding.

Finally, the last contestant got onto the stage, "Now, let's give a round of applause to our last contestant, May Maple!" Vivian said into the mike making the audience go crazy.

"Okay, go Wartortle! Show them your attract," Pink floating hearts floated onto the stage forming a straight row.

"Okay, now use bubble," Wartortle released bubbles from his mouth as he incased the hearts with them.

"Now, let's use your ice beam," Wartortle expertly short a beam of ice at the bubbles, but only a slight frost making sure the hearts were still visible through the translucent ice.

"Let's finish this with water pledge," Wartortle get into his shell, spun, and jumped into the middle of the 8 containers landing on his tail. 4 water geysers shot out and hit the heart containers dead on lifting them up.

"Okay, now stop," The water pledge let go suddenly and the containers dropped onto the floor shattering into small pieces of snow landing next to Wartortle and the hearts exploded into oddly enough smaller hearts as they surrounded Wartortle and entered his body making no effect. The crowd reacted as they had to Drew's performance, but even more so.

"Remarkable," 10 appeared on Mr. Suzkizo's score.

"The combination of moves was creative and completely original bot to mention the way the moves showed signs of long hard hours of practice," 9.6 appeared under his score.

"The performance looked like so much fun and Wartortle looked so healthy and adorable," 9.5 appeared on her scoreboard making the total 29.1.

"With those wonderful performances we'll decide who's making it onto the battling round." May headed back to the room. Drew was in the corner like a loner as usual. May made her way to him ready to taunt about her higher score.

"Good job, but that doesn't mean you're going to beat me in the finals," Drew tossed a rose into May's hands as she was about to raise open her mouth. The TV flashed the results May's face was first, then Drew, then Lisa, then Felicity, and then four others May could recall bragging about themselves. A minute later the battle arrangements popped up. Drew against some wannabe, May against another, two jerks against each other, and then Lisa against Felicity.

First up, are the two inseparable partners against each other. Lisa, the girl who's famously known as the Disguised Fairy-" May suddenly felt her brain click. She slightly remembered a time when she was in Johto watching a contest in Sinnoh where a girl was wearing a plain spaghetti strap dress, black translucent wings with fancy designs, and a mask that covered the top half of her face except her eyes. May remembered watching her win that contest with her graceful and elegant moves winning what they said as the 4th ribbon.

"And her partner Felicity who is also known as the Disappearing Light. This is going to be one intense match." May felt her brain click once more, she was reading a magazine article about a coordinator that would go through a contest and as soon as it was over there would be a flash of white light and she would be gone, no one would ever be able to find her except at the next contest.

"Come on out Gorebyss." Lisa threw out a Poke Ball releasing a pink beautiful eel-like Pokémon.

"Huntail, do your best," A blue eel-like creature was released into the water battlefield.

"3…2…1…start!"

"Use whirlpool," Gorebyss swirled her tail ferociously creating myriad whirlpools toward the direction of Huntail. Felicity stood there tightlipped not saying a thing as the whirlpools attacked her Huntail, not very effective, but still painful.

"Use shadow ball," Gorebyss shot cube, heart, sphere, and pyramid shaped shadow balls at Huntail and Felicity watched silently as her Huntail took hit after hit. Her bar lowered.

"Fine, if you don't start taking this seriously I'll forfeit," Lisa said expectantly. This seemed to shock Felicity and she nodded smiling softly.

"Huntail use dive and then crunch," Huntail dived deep into the water with Gorebyss standing still this time.

"Jump into the air and use scald," Gorebyss leaped into the air shooting boiling hot water underneath her. Hissing sounds could be heard as the water formed heavy steam.

"Huntail use blizzard," A blizzard of snow dissipated the fog. Lisa's bar lost ¼ of her points.

"Okay, now use-"

"I c-can't, I forfeit." Felicity bowed her head down. Lisa rubbed the back of her head muttering something inaudible.

"That was unexpected, but the victor is Lisa!" Vivian announced as Felicity walked off the stage with a pained expression and Lisa walked off with an unreadable expression. Felicity and Lisa met up backstage and started talking and May couldn't help it, she had to eavesdrop.

"I knew something like this was going to happen. Next time you really do have to battle me for real," Lisa held out her pinky and Felicity entwined it with hers nodding. The two others battled next and May watched as they expertly performed moves beside the fact that they were arrogant jerks who needed to get off their high horses. Drew faced off with a wannabe poser who claimed he was a total 'nerd' and finally May battled against a renowned actress who was too distracted by the camera to care if she won or not, so of course May won with ease.

Lisa went up against the skilled trainer and won with her Cherrim's petal dance. Finally it was May against Drew. His Flygon against her Venusaur, she had the disadvantage, but that wasn't going to stop her from beating Drew. He was after all, a total hindrance.

"Look at the fierceness between these two." Vivian announced.

"Flygon use dragon claw," Flygon zoomed close to Venusaur and slashed at the grass Pokémon violently.

"Venusaur use solarbeam!" At May's command Venusaur's flower glowed a bright yellow as it released the strong beam hitting Flygon with a direct hit.

"Flygon use flamethrower," Flygon's spiraling flames blasted out.

"Venusaur push it back with solarbeam!" The spiraling flames and bright beam collided against each other. Both point bars lowered at the same speed.

"Flygon use fly at maximum speed," Flygon stopped the spiraling flames and flew up high before the solarbeam could hit and whizzed past the solarbeam mockingly and hit the Venusaur sending it to its back. May's points skyrocketed into nothing declaring Drew as the winner. She returned her Venusaur complimenting how well it did. May watched as Drew received his ribbon with a victorious smirk on his face after he beat Lisa. May grit her teeth and headed out to the gym vowing she was going to win next time.

Well, that's all. I really didn't plan for it to be an extra 1,000 words, but you know what, rebels going to rebel! REVIEW!

~TDF~