Hey Everybody! Here's the next letter to our alphabet challenge! Not much else to say about this installment, but I want to thank all of you who're reviewing! jg13145, EchidnaPower, Eeveetrainer, and Jemzyboz; y'all have been a great encouragement since I started back on this story and I hope you continue to enjoy the story and review. And, of course, I'm perfectly willing to expand that list, so if you're reading this story and liking what you see, REVIEW PLEASE!

I actually left out one reviewer, but that was on purpose. Pokémon-Princess.8's birthday was yesterday, so this chapter (like half of all chapters I've written now) is dedicated to her! Besides being one of my most thorough reviewers, she's one of my best friends and I'm so excited for the next year of her life to start because I know it'll be great. She also helpfully pointed out last chapter that Brock and Ash's friendship was pretty similar to our own, and so I want to give a shout-out for inspiring that chapter! Happy (day after) Birthday, PP8!


Misty's knock on the door was answered with a look of terror.

"You've gotta leave now!"

"What? But I just got here? I thought we were gonna spend the weekend together!"

Ash shook his head. "Change of plans. Trust me, you wanna get out of here."

"This isn't funny." She gripped her hips and gave the raven-haired trainer a dark glare. "If you forgot I was coming over this weekend, you're just gonna have to cancel your plans with whoever else. I didn't drive all the way to Pallet to be turned away at the door!"

"Mist, please – !"

"Oh, is that Misty?" Delia questioned in a singsong voice. She suddenly appeared behind her son, wearing a large sunhat and pink gloves. "I didn't know you were coming, dear! Ash, why didn't you tell me she was coming to help?"

"Help with what?"

Ash smacked his forehead with a notable ire. "It's…gardening day."

"Gardening day?"

"You mean Ash never told you about our little tradition?"

The redhead smirked. "As a matter of fact, no. And I'd love to know more." Seeing the embarrassment on her boyfriend's face insured this would be a good story.

"Oh, rather than tell you about it, why don't I show you?"

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Two hours later, the water gym leader was on her knees, pulling out weeds, and drenched in sweat from the hot summer sun.

"You've gotta be kidding me," she groaned, looking behind a rose bush to find five more of the hated stray plants. "These things are everywhere. I'm gonna kill you, Ketchum."

"Hey, don't blame me!" His hands shot up from the lawnmower defensively. "I tried to get you outta this, remember? You were the one who thought I was playing a trick!"

"But you should've remembered before today about this tradition of yours!"

He rolled his eyes. "Ma calls it tradition, but I haven't had to help her garden in years!"

"How is this even a tradition?"

"I guess just because every season she comes out once to pull out all the weeds and either repots the plants that survived the year in the fall and winter, or in the summer she uproots the ones that didn't make it in the spring and replaces them with new flowers."

"Well I hate this."

"Don't we all," he replied dreamily. "Someday I'm just gonna live in an apartment in a crowded city ten stories above the ground…you won't be able to see grass for miles…wonderful, isn't it?"

She snickered. "It's a beautiful thought."

"Ash, I don't hear the lawnmower running," Delia's firm voice sounded from the other side of the house.

Running to sneak in a peck from his girlfriend, the trainer quickly returned to his post and restarted the engine.

"No rest for the weary, I guess."