Update April 2013: This chapter has been updated and revised from its original version. Past errors have been fixed and adjustments have been made but the plot of the chapter, characters, and events have remained the same.

I actually have nothing to say for once so I'm going to give out hugs once again to all who read, favorited, followed, and especially to those who reviewed! I love all of you very much and I wish you all some happy reading this chapter. Thanks so much for the support, keep it up! :)

Responses to Reviews...
chocolatehell: Ramble all you'd like! I love when my reviewers ramble because it gives me more to respond to; it gives me a chance to converse with my readers. :) You were also pretty close to what I had in mind for the next couple of chapters, good job! Thanks for saying that I work wonders by the way. :D And oh...well, I'm not going to ask then hah. :P
The Last Poison Apple: HAHAHAHA! That's so funny! Shooting someone a sympathetic look when, in reality, you're secretly grinning at them on the inside. HAH! xD
Shadow Lillies: She is...at least in my fanfiction! And yes! I love them all so much! Except Vaporeon and Espeon have always been my favorite. :) I'm glad that you like reading more of my fanfiction! That makes me happy beyond belief! :D
misspokemonpro: Why thank you!
light-chiix3: No problem! And you don't have to envy it! It's no big deal really, just a ball sort of except for high school. :) Thanks though! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
LoveLoverGrl: You're awesome! :D
Blademon: ...huh? Hahaha, I'm sorry, I couldn't understand the first word (or words?) :P And hah, I loved your reaction to them traveling together! Heheh ;D
xxTheBloodyRosexx: Haha! I'm glad someone found it funny! When I first realized that, I just cracked up! I had no idea that I had accidentally chosen two male characters that had tree names for a last name. :p Thanks!
Obviously Citra: Thanks again! :)
Heatherflower: Heheh, it's okay, I'm lazy all the time, too! Just add me to your favorite authors list when you're not lazy (don't be lazy with the reviewing though xD) Glad you love my fanfic. :)
LuvAllPokemon: Haha, that's why the title has the word 'unexpected' in it! :D
EeveeTransformed: Well, you're leaving another beautiful review...as usual. :) And yes, I'm doing really good with it so far, eh? I've been updating consistently every Saturday for the past couple chapters! :D And I will continue to write for as long as I continue getting inspiration and ideas! That sound good? Hope so. Hehe :)
Jace'sVampiress97: Mhm, glad I cleared it up for everyone! I technically killed two birds with one stone in this chapter; I got the battle out of the way and the explanation for how Gary and May met. Success ;D Thanks! And your name's Selli? One of my best friend's name is Selli!
Chi-chiwawa: Your name is so cute! I immediately went to go hug my chihuahua when I saw it :) And noooo! You totally just spoiled some of my fanfic! I was planning on adding a part of her jealousy on her part in some future chapter. Goshdarnit. :p It's going to be pretty funny though, I can tell you that. I hope I don't keep you waiting too long. :D
jenniferisvip: Can I just say that I love you too? Like, already, I love you so much just for saying that. You're such a sweetheart, thanks for reading and reviewing! :)

Love Unexpected chapter 10

Everyone in the graduating class of Lilycove University High were clad in their white caps and gowns, the gold tassel at the top of their caps swaying at the right side of their heads as they were directed into the seats of the school's auditorium by various members of the faculty. Up on the stage before them, their principal, Dr. Anastasia White, was welcoming all of their families and friends to the ceremony before she stepped down from the microphone to make way for Professor Oak (the old one).

Being a notable figure throughout the world, he had been invited by the school to give the graduating class a commencement speech. It lasted a good twenty minutes before it was Marina's turn to step up to the podium. The girl had been given the honor of giving the valedictory speech for her class because she had ranked number one out of all her classmates academically. She was beaming as she spoke; she had the audience captivated by her charisma and beauty.

Before anyone knew it, her speech was over and the diplomas were getting presented to each student as they were called up to the stage in alphabetic order by last names by the principal. Before long, Dawn was called and after she practically bounced across the stage, it was Brendan's turn.

May watched from her seat as her best friend ascended the small flight of steps to get to the stage. To anyone, the guy would have seemed happy for all of the world to see, but she knew that the happiness was only on the surface. She could see the distant look in those amber-colored eyes of his, even from her seat amongst her sea of classmates. If her memory served her correctly, the very same look had been there since their prom. Maybe she was being paranoid, but she felt that he had been keeping his distance from her ever since that night.

Every time she had seen him, he had simply smiled and walked away. Every text she had sent to him, he had replied with either half-hearted or one-worded responses. Every call she had made to him, he had come up with an excuse and hung up in the next minute. And every hug she had embraced him in, he had held her longer than usual, as if he were reluctant to let her go. As if it would be the last time he would ever hug her again. What was up with him?

One by one, the graduating students were being called up to the stage by Dr. White, who handed their diplomas to them with one hand, while they shook her other hand at the same time. The nervous pit in May's stomach was steadily growing larger as each student's turn ended and hers neared. She could not believe that in less than an hour, she would officially become a graduate of Lilycove University High. Her school days were almost behind her for good, unless she decided to further her education at colleges like Celadon University.

To be honest, college wasn't really necessary after attending a school like Lilycove University High, but it wasn't like May planned on attending college, anyways. She wanted nothing other than to set out on her own journey. She couldn't wait to be traveling on her own again like she had on her journey in the Johto region. The level of freedom she had had was amazing. Out on her own, there was no weight to hold her down or hold her back. She was independent and free to do whatever she pleased, all by herself. And though she would miss her friends, she couldn't wait to have that feeling again.

But then she remembered the wager between her and Drew. She hadn't remembered that little detail until his name was called. As she watched him walk across the stage to get his diploma, she realized with dread that she would not be traveling alone this time around because she had lost to the current bane of her existence two days ago in a mock battle in their Pokémon Contest Appeals class. She groaned mentally when she realized that he was who she had to deal with until she had finished traveling around the Kanto region. It would be months (or maybe even years) before she would be able to rid of his presence. It really wasn't fair, but he didn't seem to care in the slightest.

The selfish grasshead.

The overall distribution of the diplomas went smoothly and quickly. Every student went up when they were called and all accepted their diplomas with proud and relieved smiles, glad to be over and done with school. When the distribution was finished, the farewell speech was given, and when that was over and done with, the students all moved their gold tassels from the right side of their caps to the left as a symbol of rite of passage from students to graduates. They were dismissed from the auditorium and filed out with their friends and family shortly after.

There was a feeling of warmth in the air outside of the school as proof that the first day of spring had indeed brought Lilycove warm weather as promised. Pictures were snapped between the graduates and their family members and friends. The beautiful sunshine provided very nice lighting for each and every one of them, illuminating every single one of the smiles on every single face whether the smiles were happy or sad smiles.

For the most part, the smiles were a mixture of both happiness and sadness. Happiness at getting through the four years of high school in order to graduate, and sadness at having to leave all of the friends that were made throughout those four years. It was both a heart-warming, yet heart-wrenching sight.

"I can't believe we're finally graduates," May said behind her bright smile as she posed for a picture with her friends.

Once the picture was snapped by her mother and her friends' mothers, her smile fell from her face only to be replaced by a sad frown. It was upsetting to know that she had until the end of spring to spend as much time with her friends as possible before they all went their separate ways.

Out of her three closest girl friends, Dawn was the only one who planned to set out on a journey to participate in contests like May was, except that she planned to go to the Johto region instead of Kanto. The other two, Marina and Natalie, didn't have the same plans.

Marina's plan was to continue her modeling career with her pokémon in big cities throughout the regions like Celadon of Kanto, Goldenrod of Johto, Lilycove of Hoenn, etc. But it wasn't that she didn't like battling, participating in contests, or anything of that sort; it was just that she preferred modeling over everything. Like how Dawn and May had a passion for coordinating, she had a passion for modeling that she wasn't willing to give up. It was her life, and she enjoyed it thoroughly; she couldn't think of any other career she wanted to pursue.

She was too beautiful for her modeling agency to give her up anyways. Already, she had made it onto the top ten list of models throughout the entire Hoenn region and onto the top five list of models in the Johto region. No one would be surprised if she wound up placing number one on every list after a few years. Maybe even less.

As for Natalie, she had decided that she wanted to head off to college to study in preparation for her desired career: Pokémon Breeder. When she had first told her friends, they had all wondered why she had chosen a Pokémon Breeding career when she was so good at battling. Before she had moved to Lilycove to attend high school, she had been one of the top trainers throughout the three regions that she had traveled through—Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn—due to the fact that she had won a countless amount of gym battles, defeated the Elite Four of the three regions that she had traveled in, and taken on the Kanto Champion, Lance, with ease.

She also had a wide collection of Pokémon that she had accumulated from each region that she had kept in top condition, even in the four years that she had taken off from battling. It really was a waste, but she preferred tending to Pokémon instead of battling with them. She had a knack for it, too—six of the eight greatest colleges for Pokémon breeding had already accepted her after she had sent in her applications. Everyone she had told were supportive and approving of her decision.

"I know," Dawn sighed. "We need to spend as much time together this spring; I don't know the next time we'll see each other after we all go our separate ways."

"Agreed. It'll probably be months or years before we see each other again. I'll miss you all so much," Natalie added sadly.

Marina said nothing to add to what Natalie said. The only thing she did was blink to hide the fact that her blue eyes had glossed over with tears. She couldn't imagine what life would be like after she and her three girls separated; she hadn't been without them since they all met four years ago on the first day of school. It would be hard getting used to being without them for sure.

But for the moment, she didn't want to think of any of that; she would stress about it enough when the first day of summer drew near. She began to search around for a different topic that she could possibly divert the conversation to. A relieved smile spread across her lips when she saw none other than Gary Oak approaching the three of them, with a gorgeous bouquet of dazzling red roses in his arms. They were for May no doubt.

"Let's not stress about that now. Look who's coming, May," she said, while nudging her friend with her elbow.

May, Dawn, and Natalie all glanced over to find Gary approaching them. Her friends chuckled lightly when May blushed at the sight of him and the red roses.

"We'll leave you two alone," Dawn giggled, and went off with Marina and Natalie in search of their boyfriends.

May blinked in surprise just as Gary came up to her.

"Hey, congratulations," he greeted with a gentle smile. He then handed the bouquet of roses to her before he leaned down to pull her into a hug.

When they broke apart, May gave him a bright smile. "Thanks! Glad you could make it," she replied.

"Well, I couldn't miss seeing you receive your diploma now, could I? I probably felt as proud as your parents seeing you walk across that stage," he told her truthfully and unabashed.

The blush that grew on May's cheeks at his words rivaled the red color of the roses she held in her arms. It seemed to go unnoticed by him, though.

"I had to give you your graduation present, too," he went on to say.

May's eyebrow cocked up in question. "I thought the roses were my present?"

"No, I have something else for you," he told her as he took a step back and reached into the pocket of his pants to retrieve a PokéBall.

May watched as he pressed the white button on the red and white sphere to release the pokémon that was contained inside of it. Her eyes widened when a little lillipup appeared before her very eyes.

The puppy-like pokémon had the most endearing large, soft black eyes, that were the same color as the spiky black stripe on its back, and a red nose that sniffed at May curiously. Its face was covered in an abundance of cream-colored fur, while the rest of its body was covered in glossy tan-colored fur. There really was no other way to describe it other than adorable.

"Oh my Arceus," she breathed in disbelief and leaned down so that she could get a better look of the puppy-like pokémon.

She transferred the bouquet to one arm and reached out tentatively with the other as if she were afraid the pokémon might bolt. When the Pokémon only cocked its head at her, she took it into her free arm and stood back up.

"This little cutie is your graduation present for me?" she asked Gary.

Gary grinned widely and nodded. "Do you like it? I knew I had to give it to you the second I saw it."

"Of course I like it! It's so cute! Thanks, Gary!" she squealed and leaned in to snuggle into him since she had no arms to hug him with, ignoring the little yip of alarm that came from Lillipup.

"I wish I could hug you, but I can't, so I guess we'll have to make due with this," she muttered sheepishly.

Gary chuckled in reply and brought his arms up to wrap around her just as her mother snapped a picture of the two. They turned to her with confused looks on their faces as if they had forgotten that anyone else was standing around them.

"That was just adorable," she cooed in explanation and turned to her husband. "Wouldn't you agree Norman?"

The navy-haired man standing beside her nodded in response, and smiled at his daughter and her brunet friend.

"That's a real nice graduation present you got for her Gary. And a normal type, too—good choice," he said.

May smiled at her father's words. Of course he would approve of the pokémon being a normal type; he was a well-known normal type gym leader, after all.

"May!" Dawn suddenly cried from where she stood with Paul, a few feet away from where May stood, waving her diploma in her hand frantically to get the brunette's attention. Her gesture got her amused, odd looks from everyone else around her, as well and an eye roll from her boyfriend, but she didn't seem to notice. "Hurry up! We're going to toss our caps!"

"Go on," Gary urged, and May glanced up to find him smiling down at her. He pulled away to return Lillipup into its ball and took the roses from her and her diploma as well. "I'll hold these for you until you get back," he told her.

May smiled affectionately at him and, without another word, headed over to Dawn, who towed her away to the large crowd of people that was the graduated class of Lilycove University High. They maneuvered their way through the group to find Natalie and Marina, not knowing that they had passed Drew in the process until he called to May.

"Yes?" she pressed bitterly after Dawn left her with the instruction for her to hurry with the conversation.

She didn't understand why Dawn did that though; it wasn't like she planned on talking to Drew for any time exceeding a minute. She was sure that she would have to do enough of that when they set off on their journey together...

May grimaced at her own thoughts. The words journey and together just sounded horrible with one another in the same sentence that involved her and Drew. She almost shuddered in disgust.

"Look, about that wager, you don't have to go through with it," he sighed reluctantly. "You don't have to travel with me if you don't want to."

Drew could not believe that he was actually saying what he was saying. He wanted terribly for May to go through with the wager, but he couldn't bring himself to force her into doing something that she wasn't willing to do. He had tried to ignore the guilt that he had felt ever since he had beaten her in their battle that had taken place just two days ago, but he just couldn't.

Just like that, May softened up immediately. She had always been the one to give into something easily at the first sign of sadness, like the one that was currently displayed in Drew's emerald orbs. She knew from the second she detected the sadness that there would be no way that she could bring herself to tell him that she didn't want to travel with him, and that she was thankful that he had let her go. Her conscience wouldn't forgive her for it if she did.

"No, it's fine," she insisted kindly. "I mean, you won the match fair and square, so I'll travel with you."

"Are you sure?" he asked her doubtfully, yet he was still hopeful.

"Yeah. My conscience won't forgive me if I go against the wager."

A brilliant smile found its way onto Drew's lips as their classmates began to gather around them. He and May both chuckled as she returned his smile.

"If you don't mind being away from your friends, we should go find mine before everyone throws their caps," she suggested. "I suppose I need to start getting used to having you around me if we're going to be traveling together."

Mind? Why would he mind? If he had to choose between her and any of his friends (or anyone else for that matter), he would choose her in a heartbeat. He would give anything just to see those amazing sapphire blue eyes and that adorable smile of hers all day. The fact that he would be able to do so for a while (hopefully a couple months if not a few years) made him that much happier. He would do everything in his power to make sure that she constantly had that twinkle in her eyes and smile on her lips.

"No, I won't mind. Let's go find them," he said.

With that, the two of them set off in search of May's friends, leaving behind another one of her close friends, that they had neglected to notice, who had been standing within earshot of them during their conversation.

Brendan's amber eyes had darkened and clouded over with anger and sadness. Had he heard them wrong, or had they really said that they would be traveling together? All because May had lost a battle that was part of some stupid wager? He couldn't believe it. Didn't want to believe it.

What ever happened to him? Had she not once told him that if she ever decided she wanted someone to travel with that he would be the first one that she would ask? So, why did she even agree to the wager? Why would she give up the chance to get out of traveling with Drew if he had just offered her a chance to back out?

So many questions, there were so many questions flooding his mind. Many of them came and went without an answer, and it frustrated him to no end. But there was only one that stood out most from the unanswered questions: how had Drew managed to get May to agree to the wager?

Out of all of the questions, that was the one that Brendan had the most trouble finding an answer for. He was trying so hard to find an answer that he ended being a few seconds late in the cap tossing. When all of the caps had fallen back into the hands of their owners, his still floated in midair by its lonesome. By the time it fell back into his hands, most of the crowd had dismembered, leaving him alone to his thoughts.

He was just replacing the cap at the top of his head, when a pair of arms wrapped around his midsection. He turned around to find May beaming up at him.

"I finally found you!" she sang happily like a little child who had just been presented with candy would.

It was endearing to see her smile in such a manner, but as of the moment, Brendan could barely bring himself to smile back at her.

How could he with the knowledge that she would be traveling in the Kanto region with a guy that wasn't him? Was she even still planning on traveling in the Kanto region?

Add those to his list of unanswered questions.

"Yay, you found me," he cheered half-heartedly in a voice that lacked the enthusiasm that May had just displayed.

The petite girl's eyebrows furrowed at him, and her smile fell.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "You've been acting strange around me since prom."

Brendan shrugged and tried to put on the most convincing smile that he could.

"It's nothing," he insisted, while shoving his hands into the pockets of his academic dress to hide his clenched fists. "I just haven't been feeling well, that's all."

May showed that she had taken his words literally by standing up on her tippy toes to press the back of her hand against his forehead. He flinched away from her touch before gently moving her hand away from his forehead.

"I'm fine, May," he told her when he noticed that he had offended her by doing so, and smiled to back up his words.

Despite his anger he felt towards her, he still felt as if he needed to reassure her. He was glad to see the smile returning to her lips to replace the pout that was there just a moment ago, and even allowed her to take his hand out of his pocket. He didn't flinch away from her when she took his hand in hers.

"Let's go find our parents," she suggested. "Mine said they wanted to congratulate you."

Not waiting for a response, she began to pull him off in the direction where her parents and his were standing together, engaged in conversation. He allowed himself to be towed without protest, secretly savoring the feel of his hand in hers while it still lasted.

He didn't know if he would ever feel it again.

Author's Note: Sorry if this chapter was short; I suffered from a cold this week so I lacked inspiration when writing this chapter. Please still review though! The next chapter will be up next Saturday as usual. Thanks for reading! :)