One: I Know Something You'll Like, Trust Me
Chloe winced when Ash tripped over thin air and tumbled down the road. His knees scraped against the asphalt, leaving a pair of bloody patches when the skin should have been. Her own knees stung just looking at them. How often had he done that since she'd met him? Three times now? Four?
She would ask if he was okay and offer to escort him back to lab for treatment, but it was never necessary with Ash. No matter how many times he hurt himself during an excited fit, or how often he came off second best in playful scrap with his Pokemon, he always got right back up again, as if he hadn't been hurt at all.
Goh had plenty of stories to share about that. He once told her how Ash hurt himself on a daily basis, whether it was being electrocuted by Pikachu, or getting caught in the middle of Riolu's fist and Farfetch'd's leak (the mishap always involved Pokemon in some way, it seemed). Every time, he smiled away the pain and leapt back into the fray as if nothing happened. Goh had been convinced Ash was indestructible.
True to form, Ash picked himself up off the floor and blasted off once again, Pikachu clinging to his shoulder.
Goh appeared at her side, hands buried in his pockets. "There's an event down at the docks. Something to do with battling," he said. "It's supposed to be for little kids only, but he didn't care. As soon as he heard the word 'battle', he was off."
There was amusement in his voice, and he smiled as if he was talking about a close friend he had known for decades instead of months. She rolled her eyes. Of course it had something to do with Pokemon. She really should have known.
"You're not going with him?"
She thought it was a fair question. Ash and Goh were practically inseparable these days. She hardly saw them apart from one another.
"Not today. I'm gonna go out onto Route 5. Some new Pokemon have been spotted there, so I can't wait around. Wanna come with me?"
His eyes sparkled. They'd be doing that more often lately, she realised. Ever since Ash appeared in his life and took him on whatever adventure he felt like.
"I can't. I have to go to school." She adjusted the straps of her school bag. "You should really come more often. The teachers have stopped giving me homework to take home for you. I think they're giving up."
She recalled one teacher telling her: 'What's the point of giving him homework when he's never going to turn it in?' Then they had sighed like a disappointed parent. 'I hope he's getting a good education, whatever it is he's doing.' Even if the teachers were giving up, she still saw it as her role to convince Goh to come, and not just for his own sake. All those days of badgering him had to pay off eventually, otherwise what the heck had she been wasting her time for?
He fiddled with his Rotom Phone, having not heard a single word she said. She heard him muttering about which Pokemon he needed to catch and how many Pokeballs he would need under his breath. She had to hand it to him – he was at least thorough in his attempts to catch every single Pokemon on the planet. Now if only he applied such commitment to his school work...
Goh looked up from fiddling and met her gaze. He smiled like a salesman about to make his best pitch. "You should seriously come with us one day. You'll love it. Trust me."
His words were laced with honey and easily ignored as just typical Goh propaganda, but his eyes glowed with a conviction she wasn't accustomed to seeing in them.
She pulled her gaze away and shuffled her feet on the spot. "I'll think about it, okay?"
"Yeah, you should. I'll even talk to Ash about it, see if he's got any ideas. I bet we could come up with something really fun together." Goh pocketed his Rotom Phone and set off down the road with a wave. "I'll see you later!"
She stared after him, and thought to say, "Don't stay out too late!", but he was long gone. She sighed, willing the familiar pang of irritation to float away into the morning sky, and trudged her way to school.
Those guys better not come up with anything too crazy. The thought started out as a threat, but the more it played in her mind, the more concerned she became, until she couldn't stop thinking about it. Throughout the entire school day, she fretted about what weird and wonderful scheme Ash and Go would conjure, and how she should have told Goh that school came first, and how it couldn't be anything weird, or dangerous. Then she remembered the boys' recent attempts at finding a rare Pokemon in the wild, and how they both came back sopping wet, shivering, and without any clothes on except their boxer shorts. "It didn't go to plan," Goh explained to her through chattering teeth. Who am I trying to kid?
Goh's words replayed in her head. "You'll love it. Trust me."
She buried herself in her textbook, her lips pulled tight in a bitter line. People seemed to really like telling her what she'll love doing, as if they knew her better than she knew herself.