This is probably the most important chapter of the entire story... next to the last of course. I hope you guys enjoy reading it! It shall explain Kenny's sudden quietness.

I was so busy this weekend I didn't even think I could get this chapter out in time... but I did. Mwhahaha! I feel so accomplished. I've been busy all week but I got it out anyways... yay! Feel glad I got over my laziness to did this all for you.


~ Best Friends Forever ~

Chapter 8


Worry took over him as he ran to find his friend Barry. Kenny had woken up with a start that morning, suddenly remembering to look for Barry. It was important; he needed to share what he had just learned with the guy immediately. He couldn't keep it to himself—this could not wait.

He ran to Barry's house as fast as his legs could carry him, and finally arrived at Barry's house. It wasn't much of a run, but it felt like forever. Kenny knocked on the front door furiously, completely forgetting that there was a doorbell a yard away from his pounding fists. Loudly, in his mind, he kept screaming Barry's name over and over in his head. He needed to see the guy now!

So occupied in what he had to tell Barry, he didn't notice the door had already opened and he had been knocking on nothing for the past ten seconds. He flushed embarressingly as he lowered his hand and looked down at the little girl who had opened the door for him. He remembered Barry telling him about having a little sister, but he had never seen her before.

"Psycho..." she muttered at him. It was probably because he was knocking on the door continously at eight o' clock in the morning without noticing the door opening.

"Look," he racked his mind for her name, while maintaining a serious tone, "Jessica. I need to see your brother so—"

She stood there smiling upward at him. "I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about. You've got the wrong house... good bye!" She swung the door shut, but Kenny slipped his foot between the door and the door frame. With ease (since he was a couple years older), he pryed the door open only to be met by a scream by the little girl. "AAAAAAAAAAAAH!" she screeched loudly. "Child mole—"

A taller figure stood behind her and clamped a hand over her mouth. "What on earth Jessica? Shut up already! How many times do I have to tell you not to open the door for strangers—" his voice trailed off as he looked up at Kenny. "Oh Kenny! I didn't see you there. Pardon my sister, she can be a pain sometim—OUCH!" He was cut off by his sister biting his hand. His hand snapped away, wiping her saliva off his hand with his shirt. "What is up with you today?" he asked her as if Kenny wasn't at the door at the moment.

"I'm hungry," she merrily replied with a shrug. "I asked you for something to eat an hour ago."

Laughing nervously, his hand flew to the back of his head. "I forgot. Meanwhile, Kenny, come in!" Kenny obeyed obediently, looking carefully at Jessica, just in case she might attack suddenly or something. "Mind helping me make Jessica something to eat?"

He wasn't here to help Barry babysit his sister, but he agreed to do so anyways. "I don't mind." And with that, Kenny followed Barry into the kitchen to make her a sandwitch, as Barry had said. Kenny observed everything he passed along the way. The house was tidy, but sometimes, there was something out of place or misplaced. Otherwise, it was nice and clean. He had never been in Barry's house before, despite them being friends for a while now.

"I'm horrible at making food of any kind, so I'll need your help. Oh Kenny, what brings you here in the first place?" Barry finally questioned.

"I have something to tell you." Barry nodded to himself and the two boys went to work.

Having trouble locating the bread, he searched around the cupboards for other materials needed. After an hour, the two boys finished making a simple blueberry sandwitch. The cause of the delay was because of Jessica's random distractions and because neither of them knew where half of the things in the kitchen were so they had to go digging through the entire place. Placing it on the plate carelessly, Barry shoved the plate hastily in front of Jessica's face. "Here."

She thinly smiled and pushed the plate away. "I wasn't hungry; that was just for my entertainment. And you guys didn't know that while I distracted you, I moved everything around so you would have a hard time finding it." And with that, she skipped off into doing whatever it is she was about to do.

Now that he thought about it, there were times when he remembered he already got something but he found it missing the next second he turned around. In addition, there were times where the ingredients were up in a high place or hidden secretly. How she hid them without them knowing, only Arceus would know. "That girl," he heard Barry mumble, "is going to get it one day." Finally regaining himself, he looked down at the plate in front of him. "Kenny, do you want it?"

Kenny shrugged absentmindedly but got it anyways. After about fifteen minutes of cleaning up the mess (they made a big mess), Kenny and Barry finally settled down to sit on one of the couches in the living room. "Sorry," Barry apologized, "my mom and dad just left the house to figure out the mishap of the equipment and materials we need for the festival. Did you hear something about how the shipping of our supplies being messed up and got postponed?" Kenny shook his head. "Well, the shipping is going to be delayed until a couple of days, so when it does come, we'll all be working really hard to put it together and bring it to a finish. Of course, you'll be working with all the girls in the kitchen."

Slapping Barry's head, Kenny frowned disapprovingly. "You're the one who got me into it."

"I'm kidding. Anyways, so the point is, everything got postponed... so I'm stuck at home babysitting my sister until the materials do arrive. And by then, it should be before the deadline... so we must work super hard to carry out the plans properly."

Kenny nodded and quickly asked, "Barry, did you know about Lucas's plans?"

"What plans?" he seemed to be utterly confused yet clearly understanding the situation at the same time.

"I'm talking about the one where he decided to ditch the Sinnoh League just to avoid Dawn, and that Dawn only went to the Sinnoh League to see Lucas."

Barry was silent for a moment, for he did not say a word. "Yes," he finally muttered.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he exclaimed.

Raising his hand up in the air, he tried calming the boy down. "I didn't know! And besides, Lucas told me to keep it a secret. As for Dawn, I thought you would've known being her best friend and all." Filled with fusteration, Kenny buried his hand into his head and muttered out something. "What? I didn't catch that."

"I said, 'I'm a jerk'."

"What why?" Barry had no idea what was going on at the moment. He was confused as can be. He didn't even know why Kenny was suddenly asking him all of this.

"You know, just before the Sinnoh League started, I bumped into Dawn. I asked her if she wanted to travel with me, but she denied, saying that she would go with Ash instead," he said with a pause. A minute later, he found his voice again and continued, "I thought that she had chose Ash over me. I had no idea that Lucas was going to be at the Sinnoh League. I thought that he'll be caught up in research. I liked Dawn a lot at the time, as you already know, and I was heartbroken after she had denied. After sulking about it for a while, I figured out that I might actually have stronger feelings than just liking her. I wanted to push those feelings away then, expecially after I 'knew' that Dawn didn't like me, but she liked Ash."

Barry protested, "But she doesn't like Ash anymore than she likes me, and the only reason why she went to the Sinnoh League was to see Lucas. That and she wanted to thank Ash for helping her with the things she needed help with on her journey. She confronted me herself while I was there; she asked me where Lucas was and why he wasn't here. You can't blame the poor girl though—she hasn't seen her brother in a long time."

"So I left that day, thinking that Dawn liked Ash," he continued, completely ignoring what Barry had just said. "I pushed her away—in hopes of getting over her—but that never happened. Then, I decided that it would be best if I just, didn't talk to her as much as I did before because if I did, I wouldn't be able to stand it. I didn't want get any closer to her than I already am because it saddens me to think about how I've lost her to someone else. I was scared that if I got any closer to her, I'll break down or something. I won't be able to stand being with her if I 'knew' she liked someone else other than me. I didn't want to talk to her because all I end up thinking is how much I love her. I couldn't stand doing that all the time, so I just pushed her away to finally find out that she never liked Ash in that way in the first place."

"That would explain a lot. Dawn is worried about you, you know. She's been wondering why you've been so quiet and feeling lonely," Barry remarked.

"I knoooow! And I regret doing it. I should've just asked her..." he rambled absently.

A thought suddenly stuck Barry. "Wait, how did you find out about Lucas's plan and stuff? I didn't blurt it out randomly did I?"

Kenny shook his head sadly. "No, unfortunately, I eavesdropped. I know I wasn't supposed to be, but I couldn't help but listen in on Lucas and Dawn's conversation last night!" he rushed the last part after the glare Barry was giving him.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk."

"I guess I deserve that for both of the things I did. Hey, Barry... can you do me a huge favor?"

Barry curiously looked at the boy as he stared down at his sandwitch. Poking holes through the upper layer of bread, he was oblivious to what he was doing. "Hm?"

His poking began slowing down at a steady pace. "Can you keep all of this a secret? I don't want Lucas or Dawn to find out about what I did... I always wanted to win over Dawn's affection over everyone else out there who was competing for the same thing I am. However, she seems to be talking to the other person more than she does to me. I'm afraid that she doesn't want to talk to me much because I'm boring and I've stuck around with her since childhood. So I decided to ignore her... after thinking that she liked Ash more than she liked me. I decided to block her out of my life because I wanted to block out those feelings I have of her. Useless if you ask me. They're tearing away our friendship... how could I let that happen?"

Barry shook his head furiously. "You got it the wrong way. Kenny, you don't realize the way you look at Dawn when you two do talk to each other and you don't notice the times when she does talk to you because you're so busy trying to act perfect for her. And I know you enjoy every single minute you spend with her even if you're not responding to the things she says. You're busy looking at her and making sure you don't make any mistakes that you don't really see the way she looks at you. She's looks at you the same way you look at her. You two are like two mirrors, reflected upon each other. You both ignore your feelings for each other, afraid of a ruined friendship if the other one doesn't feel the same way, yet you can't stand staying friends. It shows. I know you care and I know she cares too. You're not boring to her. Kenny."

"Thanks for helping me out, Barry, even though half of the things you say are probably incorrect," he said in a sad voice. His voice practically faded away at the end of his sentence.

He raised an eyebrow. "And how do you know that? She cares a lot about you Kenny. You just don't realize or believe it because you have no self confidence in yourself. You have to believe and you can't give up quickly. Lack of self confidence doesn't lead to anywhere. You can only accomplish things if you're destinined and determined to complete what you are going to do."

"Even if that is true," he finally said after a long period of pausing to think, "I don't think I can do anything to make her forgive me for ignoring her after that incident. Besides, I can't make up the time I spent ignoring her. She probably hates me. I didn't have enough courage to ask her to travel with me in the beginning... and when I finally did, I purposely chose the time when she's done traveling with her last traveling companion. Instead, she rejected my offer. I thought that that was the end. I felt like I should've been the one she chose. I couldn't help but envy Ash as to how he had been a much better friend to Dawn than I am to her. And Ash knew her for about a year or two. I feel like such a horrible friend. Maybe she doesn't deserve me afterall..."

With a shake of his head, Barry frowned. "Don't say that about yourself, Kenny. You know that's not true."

He shrugged. "I don't know what to do anymore. At first, I thought that I had given up on her... but that's not possible. I had given up on myself and my abilities."

"I know what you can do," Barry suggested. "You can start all over with Dawn in a couple days. You know, when you two start cooking food for the festival. It's always a good idea to do so you know. Get closer to her while you two are spending time with each other and leave the rest to me."

Kenny thought over it for a while before frowning. "What do you mean by 'leave the rest to you'?"

He said nothing but whispering slowly, "Shhh! It's for me to know, and for you to find out eventually."

"Alright, whatever. Anyways, I have to go back home, my mom will start to wonder where I went. I didn't leave a note or anything..." He got up and set his plate on the table. It was left uneaten due to Kenny's sudden lost of appetite. He wasn't hungry anymore nor was he in the mood for anything. Wondering what would've happened if he hadn't given up on himself and didn't ignore Dawn like he had, he let out a low murmer of goodbyes to Barry.

Barry nodded and led him out the door. As he walked down the porch steps, Kenny heard Barry shout out from behind him. "Kenny, don't worry! Your secret is safe with me."

"I sure hope so," Kenny muttered to himself. With stress and relief gone from telling Barry everything he had kept inside for so long, he let out a sigh slowly. "Now, I just hope Dawn's willing to give me another chance..."


And that, my lovely readers, is chapter 7. I like this chapter, yet it's a little... out there. Even though I had this whole entire story planned out backwards and forwards three times, this chapter wasn't part of the original plan. It turned out alright I guess...

Oh, and today Black and White is coming out, but I forgot to put it on reserve... soo... I'm screwed. Wahh! I have to wait like... I don't know... days, weeks, months to get it. Gah, me and my forgetfulness. I knew there was something I forgot. Dammit.

Please Review! xD

Wishing that I had put the Black & White game on reserve,

Lily ):