The Tardy Sweep
3 Days Later
"BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP"
Up until now, it was quaintly silent in the Ketchum household. Apart from the occasionally snore of a sleeping Pikachu, it was dead silent. That was, at least, until the very unkind cry of an alarm clock sounded through the house in the early hours. It was currently the very early morning in Pallet Town, Monday morning to be exact. It was officially the end of Thanksgiving break, and time for school to start back up again. The sound of the annoying alarm clock was still going off rampantly, but was met swiftly with a heavy hitting pillow by a drowsy Ash Ketchum. The young teenager was quickly awoken once his peaceful slumber was so rudely interrupted. He laid up in bed, still with his eyes closed. He was still wishing for his sleep to not be over. He looked at the alarm clock that was laying on the ground, only to see that it read 7:07am. This surprised the raven haired teenager, as it meant he had overslept a bit.
"God Damnit," Ash muttered quietly. "I over-fuckin-slept."
Ash Ketchum wasn't a very friendly morning person. School started at 7:45am, and the bus came at 7:22am exact. This irritated Ash because he would be stretched on time with showering and getting ready and dressed. He decided to just cut it as close as he could and that's exactly what he did. Ash managed to an eight minute shower that just covered the necessities, but he made a note to himself to carry some deodorant and Axe for later just in case. He had already checked the weather today and it was supposed to be relatively cool, so he decided on some Nike sweats and a Gray hoodie. He also had a separate gym bag packed with his clothes he would use for his weight lifting class and after school workout.
Ash made his way downstairs to the kitchen to be greeted by his mother sitting at the kitchen table with what was presumably a cup of tea or coffee. Delia wasn't a morning person either, so they each just nodded at each other, just acknowledging there presence. Ash looked at the clock and saw he had about 3 minutes left before the bus came, so he decided to grab a pear (which were among his favorite things to eat). He walked outside to wait for the bus to come. When it came, he greeted the bus driver, an African American woman that was one of the sweetest that he'd ever met, and took a seat. He sat in the mid of the bus, were he usually listened to some music and relaxed. During the ride to school, his head was buzzing around one subject.
"I wonder what May's going to do today."
Over at the Maple household, Caroline and Norman Maple had just awoken and were getting ready for there days today. Norman was getting ready for work, and Caroline was going to take May to Kanto High school to get enrolled and such. Max had finally felt better, or at least good enough to go to school. Max went to Oldale Middle School, were he was in the 8th grade. It was 7:25am, and Max's bus came at 7:50am, so Caroline decided it was time to wake both of her sleeping children up.
"MAXXXXXXX, MAYYYYYYY," Caroline yelled at the almost top of her lungs. "IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP!"
After about five minutes of shuffling towards the kitchen, Max made his way to his destination already dressed and basically ready to go. May on the other hand was still sitting on the couch trying to wake herself up. She was still sleeping on the couch instead of her room, which was fine with the rest of the family, as it was completely understandable. May knew that she didn't have to go right away, but she wanted to wake herself up to be ready either way. Besides, she was REALLY hungry. At her feet still snoring happily was a young Eevee, just acting like there was nothing in the world that would disrupt her with her sleep. Unfortunately, she had May as a mommy.
"I'm sorry Eevee," May said sneakily. "But if I have to wake up this early, so do you." With that, she snuck up behind her comically and quickly pulled her slightly by the edge of the tail, waking her quickly. This action made her fall off the couch in a dramatic fashion. She gained herself on the ground and looked at May with a pout face, trying to earn some mercy. Unfortunately, May wouldn't budge.
"I'm sorry Eevee," May said teasingly. "You're just going to have to deal with it today. Eevee face dripped with anime tears as May dragged her to the kitchen to get them something to eat. As they entered the kitchen, they were greeted by Max and Norman, who were both eating some cereal. Caroline had just gone to take a shower.
It was now 7:35am, and most of the Maple family had finished eating there breakfast. Caroline had just finished her shower as everyone finished eating. This didn't bother her though, as she had decided to just take an orange on the way to the school. Caroline had setup an appointment with the High Schools principal, Professor Oak, at 8:05am. This being known, she had some time to spare, as May didn't need to shower, just because she preferred to take her's at night. Caroline entered the kitchen to tell everyone her gameplan.
"Alright May, Max," Caroline said with almost eager voice while entering the kitchen. "Max, the bus will be here to pick you up in about ten minutes, so get ready and dressed for that." She looked over at May. "May, I want you to go get dressed, because I want to leave in about ten minutes as well. Our appointment with Professor Oak is at 8:05am sharp! So we need to be there." May nodded her head and turned to make her way to the hallway bathroom, but was stopped by her mother one more time.
"And sweetie," Caroline said slowly. "I'd be prepared to answer some questions about...you know...your situation..."
May nodded her head as she understood hat her mother was saying. She was saying people were more than likely going to ask questions about her "experience". She decided she would confront that problem when it occurred. She went and got dressed in the bathroom, and came out back to her mother. May had chosen a pair of Adidas sweatpants and a generic black hoodie. She was waiting for her mom to finish getting ready, and was killing time by messing around on her phone. She wasn't texting anyone, seeing as she only had three phone number, Ash's number, Ritchie's number (which she had gotten from Ash this weekend because she thought he was really cool.), and her home phone number. She was doing something she found herself doing a lot, which was browsing Wikipedia randomly reading about random topics. She just found it interesting.
"MAYYYYY," Caroline screamed from the door. "COME ON SWEETIE, WE'RE GOING NOW."
May was irritated that her mother was yelling for her, seeing as the front door was only about 15ft away from the kitchen, were she was at.
She walked over to the door and glared at her mother.
"You know you didn't have to yell at me?" May told her mother irritably. "I was basically within whispering distance..."
Caroline had a smirk on her face. "Now that wouldn't be any fun though, would it?" She said slyly.
May scoffed away the remark and they made there way's towards the car. They got in and both saw they had about 15 minutes to get to the school, so they set off. The car ride was silent, and not a content silence, but an awkward silence that was void of words. Thankfully though, Caroline wanted to end the silence, and began to pick up on some small talk. They started out on what they expected to happen at the appointment, which was rather bleak, seeing as neither Caroline nor May had any idea what would happen.
The conversation eventually ended up on the topic of what happened this weekend and more important to May, Ash. May and Ash didn't see each other on Saturday, as they both agreed to take it off as a well deserved day of rest. That didn't stop them from texting each other though, because they did all day and talk for a long time when night hit. Caroline wasn't shocked by how much the two teens had bonded together, because it was clearly obvious that they were really into it with each other.
May wasn't done with Ash either. On Sunday, she and him had just went out on a walk around the park with Eevee. They had a real good time for the most part. The only irritating part was since Ash and May were local celebrities now, for obvious reasons, some came up every once in a while and would ask May a kind've intrusive question, or bug Ash for his autograph for being a hero. All in all, May would do it again. She had fun with Ash and was happy to see Eevee was having fun too! She had also found out what Eevee loved to eat, plain white rice. It was weird because it didn't have much flavor. That didn't bother anyone though, as it wasn't to expensive, and Eevee loved it!
Something May kept from her mother about this weekend was that she had went from holding onto Ash's arm when they walked to plain out holding his hand. It embarrassed her to think about it, but she loved it and was almost sure Ash did too. Several of the people that stopped and talked to them had asked if Ash and her were boyfriend and girlfriend. They both denied sheepishly and embarrassed.
After about ten minutes of driving, Caroline pulled into the parking lot of Kanto High School. May gazed in awe of the shear size of the school. She hadn't really expected the school to be this big. This made her nervous, but she knew she was ok with her mother and she knew Ash was here as well. They both got out of the car and made there way to what they assumed was the school's main entrance. Luckily, they were right, as they were greeted by Professor Oak at the front door.
"Hello there!" Oak said with a jolly voice. "It's great to meet you two! My name is Professor Oak, and I am the principal of Kanto High School." Oak opened the front door and motioned for the latter to come inside, which they did happily. Oak led them down to what they presumed was his office area. It was a decent sized office, not being to big or to small. It was well furnished, with a soda machine in the corner near his desk. He showed them there seats and began.
"Well I'm happy to have both of you here today." Oak said happily. "I understand that May would like to enroll today, Ms. Caroline, am I correct?"
Caroline responded with a quick nod and a smile on her face.
Oak chuckled happily. "That's great then!" Oak said very cheerily. "Well May, to start off the process, we just have to get some basic information on you, and then I will need you take take a sort've 'test' to see were you stand academically." May nodded eagerly.
"I'm ready, lets get started!" May said happily. This surprised him quite a bit. He was expecting her to be a little more shy and drawn back seeing her situation, but no, she acted like any other excited girl. This gave Oak some very high respect for her.
"Well then," Oak started eagerly as well. "Why don't you do this 'test', while me and your mother go over your information. Don't worry, the 'test' is only 15 questions. It shouldn't take to long. Good luck!"
That's how it was for the next 15 minutes, May was filling out the test sheet, and Professor Oak and Caroline went over May's information. Caroline and professor Oak soon finished all of the basic information and Oak preceded to enter the data into the computer. By the time he had finished entering all of the data, May had finished her 'test'. Oak took it and skimmed over it for a second and his eye's widened in slight surprise. This wasn't seen by May, but Caroline caught onto it. She was worried, but she'd ask when May wasn't here. After about 2 more minutes of computer typing, Oak seemed to finally finish it off by printing something.
"Alright May," Oak said, almost as he was trying to build up suspense. "Welcome to Kanto High School! Here is your new schedule. I'll explain everything on it to you." May shook her head as a sigh that she was paying attention and ready.
"Alright," Oak said taking a deep breath. "Here at Kanto High, the students go through 4 different classes, or blocks, as we call them. Your first will be English Preparatory, which is fancy for English III. Your second will be a special kind've elective called Teacher's Caddy. You basically go yo another class of an assigned teacher to help out. You've been assigned to Coach Rade, who is our weightlifting coach."
Oak looked over at May to see if she understood everything he has told her so far, and earned a nod from her, which meant she was following.
"Alright then," he said. "Your third is plain Math III, or Algebra II. Your fourth and final class of the day is Pokemon History and Care, and be happy, because that is a very hard class to get into. It's reserved for the ones who actually care."
Oak looked over at May again. "Do you have any questions?"
May thought and couldn't think of any. "No sir, I don't" she said politely. "Thank you so much."
Oak looked at her happily. "It's nothing dear, you deserve the same chance as everyone else!" He smiled widely, which made Caroline and May giggle.
Oak got up went to his door, opening it and yelling.
"RITCHIE, DREW, COME HERE PLEASE!" Seconds later, Ritchie and another boy, who May assumed was Drew walked into the office. Ritchie and May were happy to see each other and gave each other friendly hugs, while Drew just looked her over. It creeped May out really.
"Hey May," Ritchie said warmly. "I'm glad you decided to enroll today!"
May was happy she had a friend in Ritchie, it made her feel safe as well. Not as safe like when she was with Ash, but protected by a friend.
"Yeah," she said eagerly. "I'm happy I can start too!" May could see out of the corner of her eye that the green-ish haired buy was looking at her still, so she decided to not be rude and say hello.
"Hi, I'm May." She said happily, yet carefully. "It's nice to meet you Drew." She stuck out her hand to offer a shake. He looked at her hand before taking it and shaking back.
"Hello there," He said, almost like he was trying to act smoothly. "Nice to meet you too. I'm Drew."
May was a little creeped out by his introduction, but carried on. "Well it's nice to meet you too, Drew." He nodded at her, and they all turned back to Professor Oak.
"Well Ritchie, Drew." He started out normally. "I called you two in here because I want you two to show her to her classes and the cafeteria. Do you think you can do that?"
Both boys nodded as they motioned for May to follow them out the door. May looked at her mother one last time.
"Bye mom," She said almost sadly. "I'll see you later!" Her mother waved her goodbye and blew a kiss. They were on there way.
Now that they were alone, Caroline wanted to question professor Oak.
"Professor," She started slowly. "Why did you look surprised when you took May's 'test' and skimmed over it?" Professor Oak gave a confused look, as if he didn't remember what she was talking about, but then it came back to him.
"Ahhh," he let out. "You see I was surprised at her answer's Ms. Maple." Caroline looked at him confusedly.
"What was wrong with her answers professor?" Caroline questioned worriedly. Oak looked at her and smile partially.
"Why that's the point," He said happily. "There wasn't much wrong with them at all! Out of the 15 questions, 5 were mathematical, 5 were about Kanto history, and the last 5 were general logic questions. She only got 2 of the questions wrong my dear!"
Caroline was confused by this, her expression was reading off "So?"
Oak understood that and went on explaining. "May hasn't had any real schooling all her life, and she did that well. She got one math question wrong and a Kanto history question wrong. She did amazing!"
Caroline had a smile on her face. She was just wondering what this meant for May. Professor Oak caught this in her expression as well.
"Don't worry my dear, I will explain it all all due time." He said very excitedly!
Walking down the halls of the school, the three teenagers were currently in QnA session. May was just asking simple questions about the school and what happens. They were the generic questions, such as when was lunch, what time do they get out of school ect. Ritchie was doing a great job at explaining everything to May, so her questions were short and apart. Drew was in the front, being quiet while leading the way. May only had one more question for the two boys helping her.
"Hey Ritchie," May ask curiously. "Why are you and Drew helping out in the front office?"
Before Ritchie could answer May's question, Drew but in and answered it for them.
"It's because our first block class is Teacher's Caddy, and we were assigned to help Professor Oak and anyone in the front office." The way Drew spoke was uneasy to May, but it seemed it didn't really faze Ritchie. May just assumed it was how Drew talked. It was silent for another minute before Ritchie spoke up again.
"Hey May," Ritchie said softly. "Can I see your schedule?"
May nodded softly and handed her schedule over. Ritchie looked it over and was surprised to see a couple of classes on there. There weren't the super advanced classes some people took, but they were pretty honorable. He was surprised she was given them, seeing her situation. Ritchie wasn't going to say anything, but he did see another thing that caught his eye. This class schedule was almost an exact copy of Ash's! Everything except Teacher's Caddy, but she had Teacher's Caddy with Coach Rade, who was Ash's 2nd block weightlifting coach. This meant she would basically be with Ash all day. Professor Oak probably knew of it's and was why he did it. That man never ceased to amaze him.
Ritchie looked over at his watch and saw It was 8:35am. That meant 2nd block started in 4 minutes. Ritchie decided to take her straight to her 2nd block, so he spoke up to Drew.
"Hey Drew," Ritchie spoke up. Drew turned and looked at him curiously. "You head on to class, I'll take May to her 2nd block." Drew nodded and went the opposite direction. This left May and Ritchie. May felt comfortable this way, as she trusted Ritchie more than she did Drew.
"So Ritchie," May started slowly. "Where are we headed now?"
Ritchie looked at her and smiled. "We're headed to Coach Rade's weightlifting room. That's were you will be have 2nd block."
May was content with that answer and smiled and kept walking. They eventually made it to the weightlifting rooms door, were they were greeted by Coach Rade.
"Hello," Rade said warmly. "You must be May Maple, my new 'caddy'." May smiled and shook Rade's hand.
"Yes sir, I'm happy to help." May said cheerily, happy by how the personality of the weightlifting coach shined to her. He was a fading hair man, who from what she saw was very fit. He spoke to May and Ritchie again.
"Thank you Ritchie, I'll see you in 4th block." He waved as Ritchie smiled and walked away. As he was walking away, the bell for what May assumed was the change of classes. Coach Rade looked at her and motioned her to come in the room. It was a lot bigger on the inside than it looked. It consisted of 12 weight racks and all sorts of various bars and weights.
"Alright May," Coach Rade started slowly. "Let me explain to you what your job is in here. Don't worry, it's actually quite easy." He gave her the stare that was asking "Are you ready?" She nodded her head yes and he continued.
"All you basically have to do is refill the water bottles over here, and when a lifter asks for one, you bring him one and take it back when he is done. You also will help me record weights they lift on certain days, so I can keep track of all there progress. Besides, running small errands for me, that's all you have to do, do you understand?"
May nodded her head yes, and Rade smiled. "Well for now, all you need to do is just fill up those water bottles. The n you can just sit and wait until a lifter needs something, they're starting to show up now."
May looked at the door and say a boy walk into the room, and was surprised on who it was.
"Ash?!" May almost yelled in shock. Ash heard his name being called and looked over in May's direction and his smile grew almost ear to ear when he saw her. They walked up to each other eagerly and hugged each other tightly. Ash was confused by why she was here, but she explained quickly.
"So you got lucky to have Teacher's Caddy? That's so cool!" Ash was so happy and excited to see that May was in at least one of his classes. May and Ash knew they couldn't talk to much, because they both had something they had to be doing, so they cut it short and gave each other a big hug before going off to work. She went back to filling up her water bottle and Ash went to getting changed in his workout clothes and getting his station ready. Both May and Ash were happy that they got to be in class with each other, so they really couldn't complain about it. May was just sitting on a chair, waiting for the class to start. She'd finished her only current job and was just waiting for something to happen. She just started to think, mainly about how nice school's been already. After some thought, it always came back to one thing.
"I hope all my classes are with Ash." May didn't know, but Ash was thinking on about the same terms.
"I really hope May's in more of my classes."
Both Ash and May were happy with there 2nd block so far, and they couldn't wait for the rest of the day.
Authors Note: Omg... I honestly feel so bad for not updating sooner. I don't even have a real excuse for this either, I just haven't had any motivation to get onto my computer to type anything. I've had all these ideas and no motivation. I will NOT let this story become like my first one and have me lose interest to where I don't want to write it anymore. This is my fault of basic laziness and guy, I'm truly sorry for the unnecessary wait, you guys deserve better. Now on to the story! This chapter obviously took way to long to write, and I even had people pm me asking me when the next chapter was coming out. That seriously made me so happy. Thank you guys :)! I have May getting into school in this chapter and we meet Drew. Before any of you assume, no I'm not going to have Drew be an egotistical dick, well at least not to much. He won't be a real bad guy, just a troublemaker. This chapter honestly seemed longer than it needed to be, and not as much happens. This chapter truly is mainly here to setup the next chapter, in which a decent amount of stuff happens! We will also meet a couple friends in the beginning of next chapter. Sorry if anyone thought that the time skip in the beginning would have been longer, but I thought to long would mess it up. If you have any questions, do hesitate to leave a review and ask. Don't forget to favorite and Follow the story if you like it, and review if you have any criticism, good or bad. I love it all! Also, thanks to all who read my ArmourShipping One-shot I posted not long ago, I got some really good feedback on it, and have decided that I will have that as a side story. Meaning I'll update it more when I finish this story. About this story and updates, I have decided that instead of pushing myself to keep a once a week schedule like I tried to follow, I am going to go by the basis of updating 2-3 a month. Maybe more, maybe less. I don't wanna put the strain in myself to pump out chapters that might not be that well written. I want you guys to enjoy this! Sorry for such a long AN, if you read through the whole thing then you're amazing! Thanks for reading!
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