Hello everyone, I've got a new chapter for you all to read! Sorry it took me so long to post it I got caught up with finishing the last few chapters of Operation Winter Can Be Fun and kinda neglected all my other fanfics. Plus I had school and family issues so yeah. Anyway go ahead and read! Enjoy.

Disclaimer; I have no ownership to the Pokemon company

Chapter 7: G is for Gum

Giggles and soft laughter disturbed the silence that had once inhabited the cool spring day. The joyous sounds were emitting from two children, one boy and one girl, that were enjoying the wonderful day out in the backyard of the Ketchum's residence. The little boy had raven hair that he insisted on wearing in a untamed fashion and wore blue overalls with a cherry red shirt underneath and at the moment he had adopted a determined look on his face as he kept his bright amber eyes locked with the dark chocolate ones of Iris Dragonlight, his best friend. The girl had long royal purple hair in a bubbly three ponytail hair do and sported a pink t shirt that had white polka dots a baby blue skort (TG2012: you know skort? A skirt with a pair of shorts underneath? Loved wearing those things as a kid) and leggings that had the same white and pink polka dotted design that match her shirt. Ash and Iris sat facing each other, knees pulled to their chests, grass tickling their bare feet and toes and a small pile of brightly colored wrappers nestled in the small space between them.

"This is our last pieces of gum." Ash managed to say around the pink glob of candy he chewed.

Iris nodded as she shifted her own piece of gum to the other side of her mouth. "Yup, and there's nothing you can do to make me lose this time!" she said, determination twinkling in her dark brown eyes.

"It's not my fault that you laughed and made you bubble pop!" Ash giggled, remembering how the sudden deflation of her bubble left gum all over his friend's lips and cheeks. It's pink color standing out against her milk chocolate skin tone.

"Yes it was! You were making funny faces and made me laugh, Ash!" Iris smiled and tried to imitate the expression Ash had given during their last round of bubble blowing, but it only resulted in causing her to laugh instead.

"Whether it was my fault or not, I'm gonna win!" Ash declared.

"No way, I'm winning!"

"No, I am!"

"No, Ash it's gonna be me!"

"You can't just say that Iris! Besides-"

"Ash, Iris?" Upon hearing their names being called both six year olds turned and looked in the direction from where the voice had come from. Mrs. Ketchum, who had straightened up from bending over her garden, pulled off her large yellow sunhat, enabling the two to see the playfully scolding look on her face. "Is that auguring I hear?"

"No, ma'am!"

"No, mommy!"

Satisfied with their answers Mrs. Ketchum replaced her sunhat over her brown hair. "Good, now let's keep that way, okay?" Ash and Iris responded with toothy innocent grins and quick nods.

The boy's mother had reminded them of the pinkie promise they had made earlier that day saying that they wouldn't fight while they participated in their bubble gum blowing contest. It was an activity the best friends had insisted on doing after their mothers decided to buy each other a pack of gum as a reward for being well behaved and not running around the store when they had went to do some errands previously. So after returning Ash and Iris had set their contest off in full swing, sitting outside under the watch of Mrs. Ketchum and Mrs. Dragonlight, chomping away on their gum and seeing which of them could blow the biggest bubble until the flavor of the sticky treat faded. When that happened the old piece of gum would be removed and a new one would replace it and they would restart the process.

At the moment the raven haired boy and purple haired girl were tied with bubble blowing and now that the gum they were currently chewing was losing it's flavor the two of them were getting ready for the final bubble blow.

"Those two sure can find a way to entertain themselves." Looking up from patting dirt around a newly planted pansy Mrs. Ketchum smiled at the mother of Iris. She resembled her daughter greatly with the same thick royal purple hair that she had pulled up into twin buns, to keep it out of her face, and milk chocolate skin tone. The only difference was that Rosa (Tg2012: I know Rosa is the name of the girl character from black and white 2, but it was the same name I used in Fireworks on a Rainy Day, and I didn't feel like changing it.) had bright bluish gray eyes that stood out against her dark skin tone, but were beautiful none the less. Mrs. Dragonlight pulled off the gardening glove she had been wearing, in order to assist the brunette in her garden, and wiped her slightly sweaty brow as she smiled at the scene of their children. "It's cute, don't you think Deila?"

"They are adorable," Deila agreed as she watched for the few moments the two would taking as they counted down from three together and then procceded in blowing their bubbles like they had done many times before.

From the distance the mothers sat at, they couldn't really tell who's bubble was bigger and giggled while Ash and Iris attempted to communicate to each other. However, because of the bubbles they were trying to keep from popping all they could do was make jumbled up and inaudible sentences. After a few moments the six year olds found this unsuccessful and turned to their mothers.

"Mummfthy, whichth oneth's biggther?" was all Ash could manage for the both of them.

Laughing at the boy's muffled words Mrs. Ketchum removed her sunhat once more and then beckoned them to come closer. "We can't tell from that far away."

"Yeah we can't crown the bubble blowing champion if our mommy eyes can't see who's bubble is bigger!" Mrs. Dragonlight added.

The two children gave muffled giggles as they scrambled to their feet and ran forwards. Being faster Iris got slightly ahead of Ash, but he wasn't too far behind, in fact he was right on her tail. However, this turned out to be rather bad decision when suddenly Ash lost his footing and stumbled forwards. Ash gave a small cry of alarm but that didn't stop his momentum and he went crashing right into Iris from behind.

Pop! Pop!

Was the only other sounds besides the impact of both children on the ground. Naturally the mothers rushed forwards and hurried to help them to their feet, but they froze and blinked in horror at an unfortunate sight. When Ash had fallen he had face planted against the long ponytail that cascaded down Iris's back and now as he attempted to pull away he found that Iris's hair followed each of his movements.

"Oh, dear," Mrs. Ketchum muttered as her little boy struggled. "Ash, honey, don't move."

"Why? I'm just trying to get free!" He gave a small jerk of his head and was successfully in pulling free from Iris's hair. Getting to his feet, Ash made a face at the long purple strands of hair that were sticking around his bubblegum pink lips and z marked cheeks.

Bending in front of her son, Deila reached out and carefully started to pinch clumps of the gum and hair and gave quick yanks, the action resulting in removing them from her son's tan face. So continued this process, despite Ash's squirming and protesting, and while doing so glanced over at Rosa who had just finished looking over Iris for any scrapes or bruises. Even though there were none she caught her lower lips between her teeth and the expression of distress overtook her features as she gathered Iris's long ponytail, that ran down her back, in her hands. Since Ash's large bubble had popped on impact, the pink sticky gum had stuck in Iris's royal purple tresses in a way that resembled a splatter of paint.

Delia sighed heavily. That wasn't going to be pretty sight trying to get all that out. "Could that get any worse?" she mumbled to herself.

Rosa, having heard her friend's comment gave a nod. "Apparently yes," Turning her daughter around, Mrs. Ketchum allowed a gasp of shock escape her lips, at the sight of Iris' triangular bangs that framed her forehead. Somehow when the small girl had tumbled to the ground her gum, still inflated with a large bubble, had left her mouth and once the sudden weight of falling was added the bubble burst lodging gum all in the girl's bangs and plastering the sticky mess to her forehead. Both mothers shared the expression of dread as they examined the damage the kids innocent game had caused to Iris's long hair. However, Ash and Iris, oblivious to the problem at hand, were highly amused at each other's appearances and giggled happily.

"Ash, you look silly with a beard!" Iris teased and reached out to yank a strand of her hair from Ash's so called beard.

Playing along the raven haired boy gave a stern expression, placed his hands on his hips and retorted in the deepest voice a six year old could muster up. "How dare you, little girl! My beard doesn't look silly!" His façade was ruined as Iris's giggles quickly became contagious and he laughed as well, but managed to finish. "It's you who looks silly with gum stuck to your forehead!" The two children burst into a fit of giggles at their little game.

"Alright you two, that's enough," Mrs., Dragonlight said, even though she couldn't mask the smile the six year old's cute innocence brought to her face. Each mother took their child by the hand. "Let's head inside and see what we can do about all this gum."

Once inside Mrs. Ketchum busied herself with scrubbing Ash's face clean of hair and gum, while the Mrs. Dragonlight prodded, picked and pulled at Iris's hair, attempting to remove as much gum as she could. But even with the assistance of the brunette woman everything they tried, peanut butter, cooking oil, lemon juice and a failed attempt with ice because of Iris's refusal, nothing seemed to work. (Tg2012: And yes all those things listed above work on getting gum out of hair, looked them up on Google because…Google knows everything!). There was just so much gum, some hardening, other clumps still sticky and soft, entangled with Iris's long locks that every time they believed they made a dent in the problem it turned out to be nothing more than false hope when they saw that things were just getting worse! So now that they exhausted every trick they could think of, the mothers had no choice but to be bearers of bad news.

"Cut it it out!" Iris cried, stunned at her mother's solution. "N-No! You c-can't cut my hair!" She reached up and covered her sticky head with her little hands. "I need it!"

"Yeah, her hair makes Iris look pretty!" Ash added, jumping in front of his friend with the determination of not letting a single pair of scissors to touch her long hair, gleaming in his amber eyes.

"Iris, sweetheart, we don't any other choice." Rosa explained gently as she scooped her daughter up in her arms. She held a tangled sticky section of Iris's hair in her free hand and frowned down at it, even though she wouldn't say it the mother didn't like the idea of cutting her daughter's hair any more than Iris did. But like she said, there was nothing else but that to do.

The small girl wriggled out of her mother's grasp."No! No! No!" Iris wailed, her voice breaking as her large chocolate brown eyes glistened with tears that threatened to overflow and spill down reddening cheeks. "I don't care if I look like a pink sticky monster for the rest of my life! I don't wanna get my hair cut!"

But at this point Mrs. Dragonlight was already calling the hairdresser's a sympathetic look on her face while doing so, while Mrs. Ketchum gathered her and Iris's things to leave. Seeing that her protest wasn't going to change anything Iris broke, crumpling to the kitchen floor as tears streamed down her face.

Feeling terribly sorry for his friend, Ash rushed to her side and wrapped his little arms around her, hugging her tightly. "Iris, I'm so sorry I didn't mean for this to happen!" The six year old boy was nearly in tears himself, but managed to keep it together for his best friend. Sniffling and blinking through the tears that gathered in his amber eyes Ash flashed Iris his signature grin. "Th-There's no need to cry! Getting your h-hair cut isn't scary o-one bit!" he jutted a thumb at his chest. "I get mine cut all the time!"

Encouragement flickered through Iris's sadden gaze. "R-Really." Ash nodded, but this didn't seem to help things and Iris whimpered as her mother came over and helped her put her shoes on and told her they were ready to leave for the dreaded hairdresser's.

"You'll be fine, Iris!"

"Pinkie p-promise?"

"Yup, pinkie promise."

The girl and the boy locked their littlest fingers together, causing a flicker of hope to swell inside them. And then Iris left. The look of foreboding still present in her large dark chocolate eyes. Her cheeks still wet with tears. And her chest jumping as small hiccups overtook her.

Unfortunately this was the same way the little girl was the day after as well. Seated at her desk in Mrs. Coopers kindergarten class (You know the same class from Easter Egg Hunt and Classroom Helper ;3). There was no reason for her to say anything for why she was crying like a big baby, as Misty and her group of friends had pointed out, because her hair was cut. Cut short. The long ponytail had been reduce to a curtain of thick purple hair that brushed against her shoulders and her bangs were chopped off, completely gone and exposing her forehead. And it Iris's displeasure while at the hairdresser's the hair stylist had sadly informed her and her mother that the only way to salvage her mangled hair and give it a orderly style was to snip off her little pigtails at the side of her head as well. So now Iris had nothing more than boring hair that, even though was nicely pressed, smelled of strawberries and had obtained a lovely shiny luster, made her feel less like herself. It was awful!

'I can't even pull it into a ponytail!' Iris thought miserably, resting her forehead on her desk, ignoring the whispers of the other kids around and Misty's laughs and giggles from where she sat beside her. 'I'm ugly' More salty tears threatened to spill from her red eyes but as she was about to furiously scrub them her attention was taken by the sound of a chair scraping against the hardwood floor of the classroom.

The sound had come from in front of her and she knew that it was where her raven haired friend's assigned seat was, but she didn't lift her head from her desk and give a cheery greeting like she normally did. Ash was the last person Iris wanted to see her like this. With short, ugly hair a snot dripping nose and acting like cry baby. However, the more she ignored him the more she could feel his amber gaze bearing down on her but the little girl still didn't look up.

Suddenly there was a tap on the top of her head, Iris flinched, she didn't want anyone to touch her head. Again the tap repeated itself and it was followed by a voice. "Iris?' As she expected it was Ash, and his tone sounded far too gleefully, contrasting with her gloomy and sad mood. "Did you fall asleep or something?"

Having no choice but to respond Iris answered. "No."

"Then sit up."

"No."

"But I wanna see my best friend and her-"

"Ugly hair?" the little girl guessed, burying her face harder against her crossed arms that rested on her desk.

There was a pause, the moment Iris was expecting her best friend to start laughing like Misty and the others had done, and he did laugh. But it wasn't a cruel taunting one, it was just as happy as his voice had sounded. "No, silly! I wanted to see how pretty you look with your new hair cut!"

Pretty? How could Ash say such a thing? She wasn't pretty, especially not now that all her long hair had been chopped off. This had to be some sort of cruel joke and tear filled chocolate eyes lifted up ready to give a glaring of a lifetime but iris stopped abruptly at the wide grin her friend gave when they're eyes met.

"Wow it's a lot shorter that I thought it would be," the raven haired boy comment, turning around fully in his hair and reaching out his hand to touch it, but Iris shrunk away. Seeing this Ash retracted his hand. "It must be a whole lot easier to wash it now that you don't got so much hair!"

Iris blinked, she hadn't thought about that. Wearly a smile graced her lips. "Y-Yeah…and I guess I won't have to worry about being so hot when summer starts…" she stated, remembering how hot her long hair had made her when they would play outside with the brutal force of the summer sun bearing down on them.

"Plus I won't have to worry about your hair blocking your face!" Ash commented

"My face?" Iris echoed, wiping away the extra tears from her cheeks and smiling at her friend's contagious grin. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Amber eyes blinked and Iris noticed a red tint in Ash's z marked cheeks. "Well…I like to see your face Iris. Your smile is on your face and your eyes are too. You're face makes you pretty, just like your hair!"

"But it's gone!" Iris protested, her voice shaking as tears threatened to choke her. "It's all cut off and now I'm ugly."

"You're not ugly." Ash insisted. "You're pretty Iris. You've always been and you'll always be pretty with or without your long hair."

Iris was stunned by what Ash had said and she felt herself blush at his kind words. Her best friend's complement had even brought a smile to her face as now she seemed to care less about what Misty and her friends said about her or the funny looks the other students had been giving her. "Thanks Ash you-"

"Ash, could you please take off your hat?" both six year olds turned to see Mrs. Cooper coming around, passing out morning work papers. She gave a small smile and indicated to the cap Iris hadn't notice was on his head. "You know were not allowed to wear them inside."

"Oh, right! Sorry Mrs. Cooper," Ash reached up for the hat on his head but hesitated slightly and turned back to Iris. "By the way, I knew you'd feel a little bad about having to get your hair cut, Iris." He removed his hat, revealing that he too also had shorter hair! Ash's raven hair was now cut in a cute little crew cut and Iris gasped with surprise. "So I ask my mommy if I could get my hair cut too!"

"B-But you didn't get gum in your hair Ash!" She stammered.

"I know," Ash said. "But we're best friends and best friends do things together!"

At this Iris couldn't contain her joy and pulled Ash into a hug. "Thanks for being the bestest friend a girl could ever have!" She exclaimed, happily.

Well that's it! Hope you thought it was beyond cute like I did! The next letter is H so stay tuned for that! But for now:

Bye: Toadettegirl2012

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