Hello my friends! I have finally been able to post the new chapter! I think it's the longest one I've made so far, so yay! Please let me know if everything makes sense, I hope it does. It might be a bit confusing in some parts, but I hope that's not the case.
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Shout out to those who reviewed last chapter: MasteringAMuggleLife, XxCherriesandChocolatexX, Sapphire2112, laravengood, QuartzClaw, TheeFirstEvil, purpleVonD, Lapiz14, 420Blaziken, and Ern Estine 13624. Means a lot!
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Without further ado, I bring you another installment of: FAST TIMES AT POKE HIGH!
Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.- Anaïs Nin.
May remembered the quote vividly, especially amidst the chaos and impending doom that seemed to be filling her life. She had one of those teachers in middle school who liked to collect quotes and sayings, and write a new one on the board each day. May didn't think it was all that interesting, but she secretly looked forward to seeing a new one every day. Most of them were pretty cheesy, like: "Life is a book, read more than just one page." Or "Laughter brightens the world like the sun!" But there was one that really caught her eye. Back then, she didn't have many classes with Misty or Ash, so she mostly kept to herself. Being the first one in the classroom, she had just caught her teacher writing the quote on the board. It was written in blue ink, the large loopy letters connected in neat cursive. May only remembered it, because it was so different than the other ones.
Now, looking in on her current life, May couldn't help but think how true it was. Each of them, these seemingly random students, strangers even, had suddenly united, all in one fated day. All of them are so different too. Entirely different worlds. But now, she couldn't think of a world without them. Because the thing is, when they met, something was born.
She had felt it.
And it hurts, to see one of these worlds slowly cracking. Because now Misty's in the bathroom crying, because Mew knows she doesn't want anyone to see this weaker side of her; because Mew knows she doesn't want to face Ash now. Not after everything that has happened. And it hurts to see Ash with that guilty expression on his face, because he's fucked up again, and he's one more mistake from breaking everything. May doesn't know how much longer the two of them can keep this up. It feels like she's caught between these two worlds, struggling to grasp the puzzle pieces that no longer seem to fit together, and wondering if she'll ever be able to make them whole again.
Standing outside the bathroom door, attempting to coax Misty out of her slump, she doesn't know if things could ever get worse.
But she was wrong, she was so very wrong.
"Hello? Yoohoo! May I have your attention please?" Melody's voice sounded across the house. She was holding a microphone which had been connected to a speaker, allowing her announcement to hit every room of the house. With the help of Conway, she had been able to project a video onto the large white sheet currently draped behind her. It was like a makeshift movie screen. She even had a mini stage set up to stand on. Because she had so much influence, everyone's attention was drawn towards her.
She licked her painted lips. "If you all would be so kind as to quiet down," she requested, offering them a faux smile, "I would like to make an announcement."
Leaf and Gary stumbled out of the closet, their faces flushed, and their hair ruffled.
"Hey," Gary said with a puzzled expression on his face, "where did everyone go?"
"They left," a new voice joined in. Leaf and Gary jumped. Beside them, Conway grinned, before pushing up his glasses. "You missed quite a lot. But don't worry, the shows just about to start." He laughed a bit to himself, their faces were clearly surprised.
"What show?" Leaf demanded, her tone severely suspicious.
"Look." He pointed up to the stage where Melody was standing. "You might want to listen in before you miss it. You especially don't want to miss anything, Greene." He was chuckling again. She narrowed her eyes at him.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Now she was really suspicious. What the hell was Melody planning? He simply smiled, refusing to spoil the surprise.
Gary touched Leaf's back gently, leading her away. "Come on Leaf, maybe we should leave. This guy's starting to bug me."
"Okay," she said, even though she wanted to question him further.
The contact of Gary's hand against her skin was causing her mind to go haywire again. The warmth was spreading from the point of contact all throughout her body, until she felt like she was on fire. She tried taking deep breaths to calm herself.
"Gary?" she asked.
"Yeah, gorgeous?" He smiled at her, and this time it felt more sincere, more real.
"We better see what Melody is doing."
He agreed, and the two of them made their way into the maw of the crowd.
"Misty?" May asked, tapping her knuckles against the white painted door. "You okay?" Dawn and her were trying to get the redhead to talk to them, which wasn't working too well.
"Go away!" came the muffled response. May and Dawn exchanged sad looks.
"Misty," Dawn tried this time, "we're coming in." Before Misty could scream profanities at them, or block the door with her foot, they barged in. Luckily, the lock was already broken.
Misty's face was blotchy, the makeup that Dawn had painstakingly done, now smudged and running down her cheeks. She was sitting on the toilet seat, her knees drawn towards her chest, and her head buried underneath. She was refusing to make eye contact with them. Dawn shut the door behind them.
"Misty, come on, talk to us," May requested, her eyes sad and worrisome.
"No, just leave me alone," Misty barked back.
Dawn touched her shoulder. "Hey, Misty we're trying to help you," she tried reasoning.
"No!" The redhead smacked her hand away. "Can't you see I don't want to talk to you guys!? I need to be alone right now, just, fuck off." She said this pitifully, and small, and so unlike the Misty they knew. The words hung in the air, silence slowly enveloping them. May's expression soon turned into a glare. Honestly, she was starting to get pissed.
May knows Misty, and she knows how she gets when she's upset. She knows that sometimes Misty just needs to get away. She has to drown her troubles with a tub of chocolate ice cream, a marathon of chick flicks, and a chip on her shoulder. She knows that the ice cream will never go unfinished, and that Misty will feel guilty about it enough to swim laps in the pool until her limbs are on fire, and the chlorine smell begins to choke her. She knows that Misty will scream loud enough that her house shakes, and her sisters become too afraid to calm her down, and that slowly the screams of rage will turn into that of despair, and she'll slide down with her back against the wall, crying her eyes out, because her tough façade is too much to keep up. Because no one can carry the weight of the world on their shoulders for too long. It's impossible.
But May also knows how strong Misty is, and she will not, not even for a second, let her friend kick herself when she is down. And she will sure as hell not accept her talking to her friends the way she did, when all they were doing was trying to help.
"Get up," May demanded, short and precise, brooking no argument.
Misty slowly lifted her head up to meet May's gaze. "May, I told you-"
"Shut up and just listen to me for once!" May interrupted. Dawn and Misty stared at her with wide eyes. "St-stop feeling sorry for yourself. Ash kissed you, that doesn't mean it's the end of the world. I realize that you are upset, because he said yes to Melody. I know he lied to you about it, a-and that he thinks it's suddenly okay to kiss you randomly when you two are already fighting, and when he is already on a date with another girl, but they aren't boyfriend girlfriend, okay? I get that you are mad, and flustered, and unsure what to do, b-but don't take it out on Dawn and me. We are the one's trying to help you." Sure she was blabbering, and sure her body was shaking, but she had to get her point across. Misty had to hear her out.
"May, I-"
"No, not yet," May cut her off once again. "Listen, we are your friends. We care about you. So can you do us a favor, and talk to us? That's what we're here for."
Dawn offered Misty a smile. "I know you still don't think you can trust me, but I really do mean well. We aren't your enemies, as much as you would like to believe."
Misty lifted her head up to meet their gazes. She took a deep breath. "You know what? You're right."
So it happened. Misty calmed down. She stopped putting up her walls, and finally let them in. She told him how hurt she was, how she felt that he was just playing with her emotions, and how much she had regretted the slap. She told them how angry she was, how she thought he would trust her enough to tell her about the Melody situation. She admitted that she was a bit jealous, although she said this fast so they barely made it out. But the important thing was that she was finally opening up to them. Dawn helped Misty clean up her face, and May kept a steady mantra of 'everything is going to be okay' and all of them felt a little bit better.
"I don't think I can face him after what happened…" Misty finished lamely. May and Dawn exchanged worried glances.
"Don't say that, you guys are best friends, right? It will sort itself out," Dawn comforted. Misty shook her head, her bangs covering her eyes.
"No," she said sadly, "we've fought before, but not like this. And after I slapped him? No... I really don't think I can."
May frowned. Maybe it would be best to leave it alone for a while, and get her mind off things. "Come on then," she offered, holding out her hands for both of them to take, "let's go outside. I hear a lot of voices, something must be going on."
Two of their friend's worlds have already cracked. The Pangea they once knew is drifting apart, and the thing is, they were warned multiple times not to let go of their foundation. They were told not to lose sight of what was important. A break in the overall scheme of things is dangerous.
But the night was just getting started.
Drew scanned the crowd for May. He wanted to see if everything went alright with Misty. Plus, he just wanted to see her in general.
Arceus, where did you run off to June?
As he was making his way through the crowds, a shrill voice caught his attention. "Mr. Drew? Is that you?"
He looked up to see the familiar face of Brianna blocking his path. "Oh, hey Brianna. Nice to see you," he said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. He really didn't have time for her right now.
"What are you up to?" She twirled a piece of her auburn hair in her hands, giggling a bit.
"Well I'm trying to find May, uh, have you seen her anywhere?" Brianna's smile dropped.
"Oh," she said, faking concern, "no I haven't."
He was desperate to end the conversation. "Okay, well I should really find her, so see you around?" He was about to leave when he felt her hand latch onto his upper arm.
"Wait! You can't go right now. I have something I need to tell you. Something important."
Finally, Melody had gotten everyone's attention. She was finally really to carry out the plan. Tonight, everything would change.
"I would like to bring something to your attention," Melody's announcement rang out across the house. She gave an award winning smile, earning their trust. "As you know, the school runs a weekly paper that brings you news from pretty much anything. Sports, school lunches, arts, music, opportunities, and-" she paused just to smile wickedly, "gossip." The words hung in the air like a dark veil of dread, drifting down to the crowd in search of its culprit: a girl with brown hair, green eyes, and a knack for writing. Said girl's eyes widened. Melody clacked her heels against the stage, the sounds in perfect sync with Leaf's beating heart.
Gary looked at Leaf in puzzlement. "You okay?" he asked her. She didn't answer.
There was a gleam in Melody's eyes that Leaf swore was directed at her. "Most importantly, gossip," she continued, her voice taking on a more assertive tone. "As your student representative, I will not stand for this injustice! You may have read last week's issue about Ursula Uraraka, who, I might add, is one of my close friends. Lies were printed in the paper about her and Conway. Lies that I'm sure many of you believed. This is injustice! Before that, it was May Maple and Drew Hayden. A story was printed about them without their consent, and I'm sure they weren't too thrilled about that. This is injustice!"
How did she know it wasn't printed with their permission? Leaf thought to herself suspiciously. She wasn't liking where this was going, not one bit. She was beginning to sweat.
"These aren't the only occurrences. Injustice had ravished the paper for too long! How many of you have been hurt by the paper? How many lies have been spoken about you, and will be in the future? Are we going to sit by and let this keep going? No!" There were some cheers then, and shouts of agreements. Melody had them wrapped around her finger. She smiled. "Today I would like to bring this injustice forward. Behind me I will be showing an interview I had with the head of the paper that will hopefully shed some new light onto the situation."
Leaf wanted to run. She wanted to bolt out the door, away from the crowd and guilt, and never return. But Gary had already wrapped an arm around her. Her heart dropped when we leaned down towards her ear. "I'll finally know who printed the story about me and the dung," he whispered. Her heart sank. Then she remembered May, and all the guilt finally caught up with her. She should have told her.
The film began to play.
3
2
1...
"Uh-huh I think it's on. Okay I'm filming!" said a female voice that seemed to come from behind the camera. It sounded like Brianna.
The camera moved to face two people in chairs sitting adjacent each other. You could only see the back of Melody's head, but the main view was focused on Jessie. They were situated in the journal club's room, Leaf could recognize it clearly. Normally it would be bustling with activity, but not this time. Melody had clearly reserved the room for this occasion.
"Before we begin the interview, I would just like to thank you for giving us your time," Melody said politely. The camera zoomed in a bit.
"Yeah yeah, just get on with it," Jessie replied sharply, more interested in admiring her nails than in talking.
"I would like to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind." Melody shifted in her seat, peering down at the paper in her hands. "First question: how many people do you have writing for your paper?"
"I have a team of about eight students."
"And are they all assigned a specific topic to write? Or does everybody write a little bit of everything?"
"Well that depends. There are some categories that are solely for one person, because they have the skill set to write for that section, and others I just assign to whoever I feel can handle the job."
"Interesting." Melody tapped her pencil against her chin thoughtfully. "Now I have seen a lot of names at the bottom of the sections, but there are some that refused to be named. They refer to themselves as: anonymous. Is this, I wonder, one person, or is it many?"
"That, I'm afraid, is classified information." Jessie adjusted her glasses. She seemed pretty dead set on not answering, but then again, she didn't know just who she was dealing with. No one ever underestimates Melody, and gets away with it.
"Really now? Well then, may I ask another question? How many people do you have working for the gossip column?"
"Well that's easy, about one- damn it! I wasn't supposed to tell you that," Jessie slipped.
Leaf's eyes widened. There was no way Jessie would make that mistake. She was too calculative, and too hardheaded. The only way she would slip information about her paper was if she had done it on purpose.
They were in on it together.
The brunette's heart began to beat faster as her nerves started kicking in. It was clear that the other questions were just to cover up the real one. Leaf knew it was coming before the words left Melody's lipstick covered mouth.
"Tell me, Jessie, if there's only one person working for the gossip section, at least at the moment, who is it?"
"I can't tell you that," Jessie snapped, "they refused to be named. Anonymous means anonymous for a reason."
Leaf swore Melody was smiling, now that you could see it from the camera angle, but she would bet a month's allowance on it. "What if I made a trade?" Her voice was low, and tempting, showing just how manipulative she could be.
Jessie's poker face broke. Melody had clearly piqued her interest. "What kind of trade?" she questioned. Melody leaned forward to whisper something in Jessie's ear. Her eyes widened. Leaf could have sworn there was money signs in them.
Bribery always worked.
"You got yourself a deal," came Jessie's response.
"Good."
The deal was complete. It had been before they even started.
Leaf could no longer hear the words they were speaking, the pounding in her chest loud enough to drown out any other sound, but she could read Jessie's lips perfectly. Melody was going to win.
"The only writer I assign to the gossip column is,"
It was all over.
"-Leaf Greene."
Leaf's world broke apart.
She staggered.
It felt like she had been standing on a glass floor, the pieces slowly breaking from underneath her, until it could no longer hold her weight, and then shattering. She was falling, the shards tumbling down beside her slowly and gently, and so tragically beautiful. She on the other hand sank like a rock.
The words echoed as she fell.
(Leaf Greene)
She thinks, just for a moment before the inevitable fall comes, just how beautiful glass looks when the light reflects off of it.
(Leaf Greene)
Almost like it's sparkling
(Leaf Greene)
It won't be long now, before she breaks, because there's no more hiding it...
(Leaf Greene
It was her, it was all her.
And then...she was back to reality.
The whole crowd was silent, their hungry eyes glued to the brunette in anger. Her lungs felt like they were choking on air. She couldn't breathe. She stared back at them with wide eyes, like she was a pokemon first encountering a human being. Her green eyes moved to meet Gary's gaze, a hurt expression gracing his features.
Within the stunned silence, the only thing he could manage to say was, "It was you who wrote that about me?" He looked betrayed, and she didn't blame him.
Where did all the air go? Leaf thought frantically. Why can't I breathe?
"Gary," she choked out. She tried blinking out the tears that were blurring her vision. I can't...I can't…
"I can't believe you! Do you know how humiliating it is to be the laughing stock of the whole school!? And then to see it over and over again on a fucking piece of paper?! Did you ever think twice about how it would make someone feel?"
"I...I…" she couldn't finish her sentence. Why is the room getting so small? There's too many people. I can't...I can't…
"What about May, huh? She considered you a friend, damn it! You think it was funny to fuck with her too?" He was yelling now.
The crowd had formed a kind of circle around them, which was making it even harder for her to breathe. Leaf couldn't handle all the attention. She had never done well with crowds. She felt like she was suffocating.
"I'm sorry," she tried speaking again. It took a burst of energy just to say anything. She was hyperventilating now, not that anyone noticed.
"Sorry? You're fucking sorry!?" he shouted, "No, I'm sorry! I'm sorry that May had to be hurt by you, and every other person you've fucking wrote about. Hell, I'm sorry that you don't have the guts to say these things to our faces. I can't believe I ever…whatever. It doesn't matter anymore."
She couldn't breathe. She couldn't think. She stared at him desperately. "Gary, can't you just...just...listen to me!?" She clutched her stomach, her nails digging into her flesh.
"No. No I can't! Mostly because I don't give a fuck what you have to say!"
"But you and I-"
"What!?" he snapped, cutting her off. She flinched. "You and I kissed? Did you think that made us a couple or something? Well guess what? It was a dare! You think I would actually willingly do that?" Gary laughed. "No, not in a million years."
Leaf's eyes flashed with hurt. She had to get out of there. She had enough. She turned away sharply, shoving people out of her way, and booking it towards the door.
When her world broke, she was hit by a wave of shrapnel. The worst part is, she couldn't avoid it. She had to accept her mistake, and stare at the shards of her actions as they came closer and closer to her face, intending to damage, and hurt, and sting. She had to watch in fear as her world crumbled from underneath her, the pristine perfectness shattering in one swift motion.
There was one thought that ran through her head, the thought that made her eyes water, and her heart break. The sudden realization that buried itself in the pit of her stomach, buried itself and refused to leave: it was all her fault.
After all, she was the one who made the first crack
May couldn't believe it. Leaf was the one who wrote the story about her? She was surprised to say the least, but most of all she was just hurt. Leaf, the girl who opened up to them, the girl who they smiled and shared laughs with, the girl who helped her with her schoolwork without a second thought. The girl who she considered a friend.
To find out that this so call friend was willing to leak personal information about her, just to get some stupid story out of it, hurt. It stung. And it made her wonder what else she was going to put in the paper about her, or about them. She didn't want to believe it, but what else could she do?
Her eyes began to sting, tears threatening to fall. She gulped, trying to look anywhere but in Misty or Dawn's eyes.
"I'll kill her!" Misty shouted, her eyes already scanning the crowd for the brunette. She was definitely pissed, and May knew she wouldn't hesitate to teach Leaf a lesson.
"Hey May? Maybe we should just leave. I don't think this night is going our way," Dawn told her, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder. She was staring at May with a sad expression on her face, clearly feeling bad for her. May didn't want their pity, she just wanted to go home.
"Yeah," she said, almost breaking down right then and there. "I think I'll go and get Drew, and then we can leave."
She ran off before they could protest.
"I have something I need to tell you. Something important."
In hindsight, he probably should have seen it coming. After all, it was pretty fucking obvious. Hell, Brianna would turn red at the mere mention of his name. A simple smile from him would turn the girl into a flustered mess. Everyone knew it.
Which was why he wasn't surprised when she kissed him.
That's right, Brianna had pulled him by his collar, down to her face, capturing his lips with her own in one swift motion. She then pushed him into a wall, and proceeded to show him exactly how she felt. She was in love with him, even though it was one sided. But if it took a kiss to get her point across, by all means she was going to do it.
It was just a shame that he didn't reciprocate those feelings.
The kiss wasn't pleasant for him, not in the least, even though the girl admittedly had some pretty impressive skills. But Drew wasn't a flirt like Gary, meaning he wasn't about to cheat on May like some pig. (No offense to his friend or anything, but seriously, Gary did have that record). So he did what any honest guy would do. He calmly placed his hands on her shoulders, and gently pushed her off. After all, he didn't want to hurt her.
But what he didn't expect was May to be standing right there next to them. When their eyes met, his stomach dropped.
"Drew," she said in shock, her voice barely above a whisper. His eyes widened.
"May? Hang on, this isn't what it looks like," he defended, trying his best to sound reasonable.
"H-how could you?" She backed away slowly, her red-brimmed eyes filled with horror.
"May, wait, hang on a sec!" He tried reaching out for her, but she wouldn't listen. She was already running away. "Shit," he cursed.
He ran after her without a second thought.
And those two worlds that were connected through hope and promise, that were thought to have lasted through thick and thin, were suddenly broken by another force; stronger, deadlier, and unforgiving in it's reign. They assumed that because they were good, and believed in the stability of their own existence, others would be the same. It subdued them for a while, allowing them to feel safe in the short amount of time that they had left. (But ignorance can't possibly mean bliss if it causes so much hurt the moment the spell is broken.)
The problem was that they expected too much, so when a mistake in the overall scheme of things arose, they were never prepared.
One of the biggest mistakes they made that night was only bringing one fucking car. But that would have to be dealt with later, Misty didn't fucking care. Not when May had ran to her in tears, blubbering something about Drew and Brianna kissing. Damn him. Dawn and her had rushed May outside, to avoid making a scene. It was just too bad everyone else had the same bright idea.
All of eight of them stood in front of Ash's truck in a long awkward silence.
First of all, May was in tears behind Misty, and two out of the eight of their group were the main cause of that. The redhead who was shooting glares at everyone, along with Ash were avoiding each other like the plague. That's not all. Gary was looking pissed, his hands stuck in fists at the side of his body, looking ready to break someone's arm at any moment. Paul, on the other hand, was looking at their group with a scowl on his face, and Dawn was having a mental argument with herself over what to say.
But of course, Misty was the first to burst.
"Who the fuck do you think you are?" she yelled at Drew, her head snapping towards him in rage. Her face was literally red with anger, which matched her hair perfectly. "You think it's funny to kiss fucking Brianna? Huh? Do you take some kind of pleasure from making others cry, you sadistic fuck?" She wanted to kill him, rip his arms off, feed him to the ursarangs, or defenestrate him off the tallest building in Kanto, anything. Just the sight of him was making her blood boil.
"Hey now, wait a minute," Drew said, about to defend himself. Before he could go on, however, Ash stepped in.
"Oh isn't this ironic. Who was it just a minute ago, who yelled at me for doing the exact same thing?" he spat out bitterly.
"Can it, Ketchum. I'm not done," Misty reverted the conversation back to herself. "Drew, guys like you make me sick, and believe me I've met a lot of you. I guess I was right, your type really are assholes."
"Oh I'm sorry," Gary, the master of sarcasm, suddenly said, "his type? What the fuck do you mean by, his type?"
"I think you would understand best out of anyone, Gary."
"You know what, Red? Fuck you! I know Drew, and he would never do that intentionally. You aren't even giving him a chance to explain himself!"
"Thank you," Drew said relieved. Unfortunately, he was soon cut off again.
"I don't really care what he has to say!" Misty shrieked. "Oh, and don't think you're getting out of this either, Leaf! What the hell is wrong with you!?" Now all eyes were on Leaf, who began to shrink under everyone's gaze.
She tried to speak, "I...well I-"
"How long were you going to keep this up?" Ash accused, his normally friendly gaze turned sour. Nobody messed with May, not while he was around.
"You don't understand, I was going to tell her! I quit the paper too, but Melody must have-"
"You were going to tell her!? When? Years from now, when we're all gone? Show up on her doorstep and wait for her to invite you in for tea, then!?" Misty asked with even more rage. She took a step closer to her, furious enough to do something she would regret.
Dawn stood in front of Leaf, blocking Misty's path. "Hey now, Misty just calm down. Don't do anything stupid," she told her carefully, trying to prevent a blood bath. This of course only made the redhead angrier. Her face was livid.
"Oh so now you're defending her!?" she accused, her eyes a piercing jade color. "What, are you on her side? Let me guess, you were in on it with the pep parade?"
"You think I was helping them!?"
"Wow! Give this girl a medal! She figured it out!" Misty cheered sarcastically.
"You don't actually think that I would do something so cruel?"
"Well, is it that far-fetched? I honestly would not be surprised. You probably knew all along!"
Dawn's face flashed with hurt. There was no way she was going to take being talked to like that. "What is your problem Misty? I thought we were friends!"
"Friends?" Gary laughed bitterly, "Isn't that funny. None of us are fucking friends. Red here doesn't care about any of us, remember? And after tonight, I can't say I disagree."
"He hit the nail on the head!" announced Misty.
"It's not like you even tried to be friends with us," Drew suddenly spoke, an unfamiliar scowl etched deep onto his features. He just wanted to explain himself, but no one would listen, so his anger got the better of him.
"Like I care? Why would anyone want to be friends with jerks like you!?"
"Oh, we're the jerks?" scoffed Dawn, clearly offended. "You're the one who keeps pushing us away! You're the one who from the start has never, not once, had any faith in us. It's all been you, Misty!"
"And this is the reason! I can't trust any of you!" she yelled back.
"Yeah, well you don't seem to trust anyone these days, Mist," Ash grumbled. Misty's back tensed.
"This was a bad idea from the start," Gary grouched.
"I should have never taken this shitty class, then I never would have had to meet you guys," Misty spat right back out.
Ash glared. "Why waste my time?" he asked.
"THEN MAYBE WE SHOULDN'T DO IT THEN!" May suddenly burst.
They all fell silent, shocked that May had spoken. Her eyes were red and puffy, and she looked ready to puke. No one dared to utter a single sound.
"Maybe we should just quit," she continued, her voice raspy, "think about it. It's clear that we can't stand each other's company, so why don't we just stop? Give up? Fuck it? It's what you all want right?" Her voice was sardonic, clearly depressed about the whole situation. But the worst part about it was the fact that they all agreed. Why not just quit? It would be so easy. They'd never have to worry about each other again. They could simply just pretend everything was alright for Lance. Giving up, in that moment, seemed like a pretty good idea.
Paul shook his head. "Oh, so that's what you guys want?" he asked furiously, the volume of his voice growing in volume. It was the first time he had spoken since the blow up. "I'm not surprised. I guess you guys are just a bunch of quitters. You all disgust me. You're so wrapped up in your inane lives that you don't even stop to realize that there are fucking more important things to be dealing with! Did you guys even know that team rocket is stationed here in Kanto, now? That the league who was supposed to be keeping things safe and under control has failed? No. Now people are in danger. I have no pity for any of your tears, out of any of you! You all are at fault for that, not Brianna, not Ursula and not fucking Melody. This was all you. I'm fucking done." He walked away.
"Paul, wait!" Dawn called after him. He turned around, his face marked heavily with a scowl. It made her stop dead in her tracks. It was a look of pure hatred.
"Don't get involved with my life anymore. That goes for all of you." He continued on his way, probably to call his brother. Dawn's face crumpled.
And then there was seven.
"Paul's right, okay? We're done," May said sadly. She was just so tired if the whole situation. Why did everything have to fall apart?
"Fine!" Dawn suddenly cried out, anger resonating deep from within her. It was easier to get mad at all of them than at herself. Besides, it wasn't her fault. She yelled louder to cover up the pain in her heart. "Some friends you all turned out to be. You know what? I'm leaving too! Oh and girls, you can all give me the clothes you borrowed at school Monday!"
"Why wait!?" Misty screeched, throwing the jacket at her, and the dark tank top. She stood there in just her normal pants and shoes, plus the white tank top that had been underneath. Dawn fumbled with the items. "So," she said again, "anyone else have any more parting words!?"
"Yeah, I do!" Leaf offered. All of the sadness have left her body, replaced with a feeling of vengefulness. "You all think I'm such a bitch for what I did!? How about Misty and Ash, huh? Here's a new story for you. Hey Gary, it was them who covered you in pokémon shit! Feast on that, I'm catching a bus." She then pushed passed them, leaving the grenade behind.
"What!?" Gary said, his voice dangerous and throaty. "You were the ones who did that!?"
All that talk of betrayal they had pinned on Leaf and Drew, flew right back to them.
The grenade exploded in seconds, and the sharp smacking sound of skin on skin could be heard. Gary and Ash were on the floor fighting. Dawn was screaming for them to stop, May looked on with horror, Drew was shaking his head, and Misty was attempting to pull them apart. She accidently got hit in the crossfire, the force of the hit knocking her back. She staggered, clutching the newly made wound on her head. Now there was even more screaming.
They were all done for.
"Oh, May," her middle school teacher had told her, as she finished writing the blue cursive letters on the board. "It's nice to see you. What do you think of the quote?"
May studied the loopy letters, more focused on the shape than the actual words. She decided to humor her teacher. "Well," she began, taking time to think of a response, "I'm not too sure. It's very different than the usual ones."
"Yes, but I quite like it, don't you? Tell me, May, have you ever felt that way before?"
"Not really...I mean, I haven't made much friends. Well, Misty and Ash, but, I don't think I felt anything per say" May's face flushed.
The teacher smiled. "Maybe it's all still new to you. But you know, you'll feel it when you meet new people, or even someone you love. You'll feel something strong, and suddenly everything will just click into place. But I'll warn you, you may only know how strong it really was when everything breaks."
May cocked her head to the side. "Oh."
Now she knew.