Hey guys! This story was last updated in September...oops. Well, happy late new year I guess haha. But no seriously, I've been in college in Florida for about a month or so, and the work pressure has been on my shoulders lately. I haven't stopped thinking about this story though, and I think I said it before but it's never off my mind. I'm glad that the readers are enjoying it so far as well.

Anyways, I've been slowly trying to work on this chapter, mainly because I don't want to rush in a chapter and have my readers read a chapter of less quality than what I usually put out.

With that said, enjoy :D


Monday; September 12th; 7:55a.m.

Leaf's dad pulled up near the school parking lot, and the brunette smiled before facing her dad. "Thanks, Dad," she said gratefully as she reached forward and kissed him on the cheek.

The older looking man shot her daughter a grin. "No problem, sweetie. After all I am nothing but a chauffeur, and nothing else," he said jokingly, but Leaf knew he was messing around and she rolled her eyes.

"You know the only reason you're driving me in this truck is because I don't have a car anymore," she reminded him. She recalled briefly when she had gotten a car for her birthday. Though it was an old model and maybe a bit run down, no doubt a car for her 16th birthday last year was a dream come true. It was disappointing that the car only ran for so long.

"Don't worry pumpkin, we'll get you a new car," he assured her.

Leaf smiled. "You don't have to. In fact, I'm really liking the whole 'father driving her daughter around' thing," she said, biting back a laugh. He chuckled in delight. "Plus, I don't need to pay for gas!"

Her dad grinned again, revealing his dimples. "You should probably go, you're gonna be late," he said, and Leaf nodded as she grabbed her backpack. She kissed her father on the cheek again before she hopped out of the truck.

While she proceeded to walk to the school building, she spotted a familiar spiky haired male talking to the very same girl she had seen sometime two weeks. The girl had long curly blonde luscious hair that cascaded down her back. Her eyes were properly smeared with a light gold eye shadow and her lips were adorned with light pink lipstick. Leaf briefly saw her laugh at something Gary said, and she rolled her eyes, a bit disgusted.

She continued walking, eventually leaving them behind. Whether or not they noticed her, she didn't know. She then approached her locker to take out some books. Her eyes darted towards May, who waved towards her, and she smiled back at her. "Hey, Leaf," May greeted.

"What's up?" Leaf asked as she closed her locker.

She shrugged. "Nothing much. This morning was pretty hectic. I forgot to do my chemistry homework, so I was trying to complete while eating breakfast, but my stupid idiot of a brother spilled milk all over my assignment as soon as I was done!"

Leaf couldn't help but to laugh. "I bet you got angry," she said.

"Not only did she get angry," the two girls heard Dawn say as she walked towards them, "But she also ended up almost beating the shit out of him. I mean, May it was an accident," the blunette pointed out.

"I don't care!" May retorted. "That assignment's worth about thirty percent of our grade, and now I don't even have an assignment to give up."

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Hey, it's not Max's fault you were busy procrastinating watching youtube so much that you forgot to do your assignment."

"You do procrastinate a lot, May." Leaf added.

May let out a sarcastic laugh. "Oh, great, even my friends are defending Max. If you guys love him so much, why don't you marry him?" The two girls looked at May with a peculiar face.

"Okay, I'm starting to think that this isn't about the assignment at all," Dawn said, raising an eyebrow. Leaf looked at her cousin expectedly, waiting for her to respond.

She looked like she was about to utter something, that is, before the bell rang for first period. She let out a shaky sigh. "Just forget it. I have a class. See you guys later," she said walking past them, leaving the two girls confused at her abrupt behaviour.


10:30am.

Dawn and Leaf walked out of their Physics class, completely brain fried. Their teacher had been lecturing non-stop for over an hour, and they felt overwhelmed with the new information that was feeded. It was a good thing that they had a small break before their next class. "I'm pretty sure that I'm starting to hate physics now," Leaf said.

Dawn stifled a small laugh. "I know right? I can't wait until winter break. Two weeks of absolute freedom from school and quality time with my best friends," she said, grinning as she put an arm around her.

"Oh, speaking of winter break," Leaf said excitedly, "Why don't you and May come over to my place during Christmas? It'd be a lot of fun. My parents are planning a huge dinner and lots of dessert."

Dawn raised an eyebrow. "Sure, but don't you think it's a bit early to start planning for Christmas? I'd think you'd be planning for Thanksgiving first."

Leaf nodded. "Yeah, my family likes to plan things a few months early. The Thanksgiving meal was planned since, like July," she said with a small smile.

"Cool, am I invited?" The two girls turned around to look at Gary, who was currently crossing his arms and leaning against the wall. Leaf noticed the smallest of smirks playing on his lips. He pushed himself off the wall and walked towards them. "I love thanksgiving. I think it's a really great festivity. Plus, the turkey and ham never fails to amaze me...at least when my grandpa makes them. Heaven knows I can't cook a meal."

Leaf's eyes narrowed at him. "Okay, first of all, it's rude to eavesdrop on someone's conversation, and second, what on earth makes you think I'd invite you to Thanksgiving with my parents? I don't like you."

Gary feigned hurt and put a hand over his chest dramatically. "You wound me, Leafy. I thought we were friends," he said. "We have been lab partners for over a year, you know."

Leaf rolled her eyes. "Don't remind me. You're the most aggravating person I know."

"Thank you," Gary grinned.

"That wasn't a compliment!"

Dawn couldn't help but to laugh at the two. They had no idea how adorable they were in her eyes. The blunette had been shipping the two ever since Gary was assigned to be her lab partner a year ago. She thought the two had undeniable chemistry; plus it was so obvious that Gary had deep feelings for Leaf, however she was just too blinded by the rumours that spread around in the school revolving Gary. She didn't know who started the rumours, but according to most students, Gary Oak was considered to be a player; someone who'd play girls and leave them.

Of course, Dawn was smart enough to know that any rumours that spread around in high school were most likely never true. In fact, Dawn and May repeatedly told Leaf about Gary's fake rumours, but she was just too obstinate to listen to anybody. Leaf had been convinced that Gary was a heart-breaker, and she hadn't changed her opinion since then. It was really disappointing.

"Can you just leave us alone? Go back to your bimbos!" Leaf exclaimed. Dawn widened her eyes a little.

Gary eyed her with a questioning look. "Bimbos?"

"Yeah," Leaf said, nodding. "That girl you've been with for the past two weeks; I know about it, Gary. She's just your toy of the month." Gary stared at the brunette with a look of disbelief. "I actually feel really bad for her, she doesn't know that you're gonna break her heart."

Gary blinked a few times out of confusion. "Okay, I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm not a heart-breaker, and what girl are you even talking about?"

"Don't play innocent with me!" She retorted and then sighed before continuing, "Fine, I'll humour you. That girl with the blonde hair this morning; you were talking to her and making her laugh."

Gary bit his lip to prevent him from laughing out loud, but Leaf got annoyed when she noticed he got a humorous look in his eye. "You mean my older sister?" Dawn couldn't help but to cover her mouth with her palm and let out a small giggle.

Meanwhile, Leaf seemed speechless and her eyes had been widened, looking like dinner plates. That girl she had seen him with was his sister? "...Sister? You have a sister?"

This time, Gary let out a few loose chuckles. "Yeah. She just came back from college two weeks ago. So she's been driving me to school so we could spend more time together." Both Gary and Dawn couldn't control their laughter, and Leaf looked at both of them, completely red in embarrassment. Dawn thought it was rude to be laughing at her best friend, so she managed to stop after a while.

What the two didn't expect was Leaf to start running across the hallway. "Leaf! Come back!" Dawn yelled. Great, she was really embarrased.

"Oh man," Gary said, "I didn't mean to embarrass her," he said, looking at Dawn.

Dawn sighed sadly. "Well, we were laughing. Poor Leaf," she said. Then, she thought of something and then looked up at Gary. "You should go talk to her," she suggested. "Make her feel better."

Gary straightened his lips into a thin line. "That's not a bad idea."


Dawn walked down the hallway when she noticed Paul in art class again, and he seemed to be alone painting on his canvas. She didn't mean to spy on him but every time she noticed how much he was into painting, she couldn't help but a small smile show.

For the past two weeks, the two had been on good terms suprisingly. Ever since Paul had attempted to apologize (emphasis on 'attempted'), she and Paul hadn't been bickering at each other anymore. In fact, she'd like to say Paul was eventually starting to be slightly nice to her, and even toned down on the random insults he'd usually throw at her. Also, Dawn's Math grades was starting to slowly improve and she was extremely grateful so far.

Paul suddenly felt eyes on him, so he looked briefly outside the window, noticing the blunette, who now had a scarlet red blush apparent on her cheeks. The plum-haired male simply rolled his eyes and continued painting, not expecting the classroom door to open. "Sorry...I didn't mean to stare at you," he heard her say. "It's just...I find it really cool that you seem so fascinated about painting."

She didn't get anything but silence, but she didn't expect him to eventually respond. "Is that such a big surprise?"

She rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "No, like I said, it's really awesome!"

Paul's shoulders relaxed. "Thanks. I've been a painter since a while now."

Dawn nodded. "I bet. Anyways, out of curiosity, why are here by yourself?"

"I'm painting something for a project due tomorrow, and I want it to be perfect."

Dawn nodded in understanding. "Sweet. Can I see?" she asked enthusiastically, before she then bit her lip. She recalled the last time she asked that, Paul had practically barked at her. "Never mind," she said instead. "I shouldn't have asked. But, I'll see you at the library after school later," she said before she turned against her heel.

At that moment, Paul didn't know what he was doing, but he called after her. "Wait," he said, causing the blunette to stop in her tracks. He closed his eyes momentarily, wondering why his body compelled him to do that. It was a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach, and he didn't understand it. Dawn turned around when he opened his eyes. "...You can look at it if you want," he said so softly it almost sounded like a whisper, but Dawn had heard it loud and clearly.

She was trying to get over her shock. "What?"

Paul rolled his eyes. "Don't make me change my mind here," he said.

Dawn internally squealed and walked over to where Paul was. Her smile had dropped when she locked her eyes on the canvas; her expression had changed completely to the point where she couldn't believe what she was looking at. It was a painting of an older looking version of Paul, but Dawn was surprised more at how clean and crisp his painting was. Everything was done so perfectly; his eyes, nose, lips and the rest of his features were completely human like.

She was amazed and speechless. "Wow," she muttered. "Paul...this is so beautiful," she looked at him in astonishment.

"I'm glad you think so. Now that you've seen my painting, you may leave now," Paul said.

"Wait!" Dawn retorted. "I'm serious, Paul, you're a really great artist. I'll be really surprised if you don't get a perfect score on this assignment," she said, looking at the canvas again. "Is your brother?"

Paul's heart clenched and he found himself not being able to answer. He still couldn't believe the fact that he had willingly showed her his painting of his brother. Painting his brother had been really important and confidential towards him. He was internally questioning himself and forgot about the question Dawn had brought up.

Dawn noticed his change of demeanour. "Is something wrong, Paul?"

He blinked. "I'm fine. I'm going to the water fountain to get a drink," he decided before Dawn nodded as he walked out of the classroom, leaving her by herself.

Dawn took notice of the painting again, and took the canvas in her hands, continuing to admire the hard work he had put into. Whoever this guy was obviously meant a lot to Paul. She found that piece of information interesting. It reminded her of how her mother was always the most important person in the world. Perhaps Paul and her did have something in common.

"Dawn?"

Without warning, she got startled and screamed a bit loudly before the canvas fell out of her hands and unfortunately falling flat onto the ground. Dawn gasped before she covered her palm in complete shock. Gary's eyes widened before he ran towards her as Dawn picked up the canvas again. The two looked at the painting and Dawn groaned when she noticed smudges. "Oh shit, I'm so sorry, Dawn," Gary said apologetically.

Dawn groaned. "Paul is going to kill me!" she exclaimed. "Do you know how hard he worked on this?!"

"It was an accident, Dawn. Besides, it was my fault. Maybe Paul will understand."

"What will I understand?" Dawn's eyes widened when she noticed Paul in the doorway.

Gary looked at his watch. "Oh, would you look at that? It appears I'm late for my history class. Later, guys!" Gary said as he speed-walked past Paul and outside the classroom, while Dawn was looking at him in disbelief.

Meanwhile, Paul crossed his arms. "Umm...funny story...I accidentally knocked down your painting..." Paul's eyes widened in anger. Dawn laughed awkwardly. "See funny, right?" She stopped laughing when she noticed Paul's deadpanned look towards her.

She suddenly felt small when he practically stormed over towards her, and violently snatched the painting from her hands. Reggie's face had been smudged a bit, and while he was angry, he placed the canvas back onto the stand and began to dwell in thought. "Paul, I am so sorry! I didn't mean to knock down your painting and ruin it. Gary startled me when I was holding and then I let it go by accident." Paul didn't respond, and Dawn knew that he was probably cursing her out in his head.

"I know! I'll just fix it!" She exclaimed before grabbing a brush but before the brush could touch the canvas, Paul grabbed her hand, stopping her. "What are you doing?"

"Leave the brush," he told her when he let go of her hand. Dawn did as she was told, and dropped the brush on the floor. "I meant on the table," he pointed out.

Dawn was surprised. Why wasn't he raging at her? "Aren't you mad at me?"

"Of course I am," he said. "I worked my ass off to paint a picture of my older brother for two weeks and right before the day it's due, it's smudged." Paul's words made Dawn feel really guilty. "So now, thanks to you, I have to work on it tonight." He took the painting in his hand and walked outside, leaving Dawn behind.


1:03pm

Dawn and May were currently walking over to their lunch table with trays of food in their hands. "So, Paul didn't yell at you? Is today opposite day or something?"

"That's not the point, May. His painting was really important of him. He painted his older brother, and it was really perfect. I would get mad as well if someone destroyed a painting of my mom or something," Dawn said, playing with her mashed potatoes with her fork as the two girls sat down.

May waved her a hand of dismissal. "He'll be fine. All he needs to do is fix it."

Dawn stopped and looked at May, as if she had just got an idea. "Yeah, all he needs to do is fix it. And I'm going to help him do it."

"What?" the brunette asked her in disbelief.

"I'm gonna need a ride after school to Paul's place."

"You have got to be joking," May said as she bit into her cheeseburger. "I can't believe you wanna go to Paul's place just because you wrecked his painting a little."

"Hey guys," Gary approached Dawn and May and sat down across them. "Have you seen Leaf? I can't find her anywhere."

Both girls shook their head. "So you haven't found her since she ran off?" Dawn asked, to which Gary shook his head.

"No, thats why I came to you earlier to ask if you've seen her but then-"

Dawn cut him off, "Yeah and then you made me drop Paul's painting." Dawn rolled her eyes. "Not only that, you also ran off leaving me to take all the blame," she pointed accusingly and Gary soon apologized afterwards.

"I could text her and ask her where she is," May suggested. Gary nodded, and then May took out her phone as she began to type. "What happened, anyway? Why did she run off?"

Dawn replied, "Because Leaf got embarrassed when she realized that Gary's 'girlfriend' happened to be his older sister. We kinda laughed at her, but we didn't mean to. I thought she'd be fine later. I'm such a horrible friend."

"No you aren't," May countered, placing a hand on Dawn's shoulder. "You're a best friend that anyone would be lucky to have." Dawn smiled towards the brunette, when May heard her phone vibrate. She looked at the message and then said, "Leaf's in the Biology Lab."

Gary raised an eyebrow. "What's she doing there?"

Dawn shrugged. "No idea but I'm thinking we need to talk to her," she said as she stood up. Both May and Gary stood up as well and followed Dawn.


The trio walked towards the Biology lab that was about a five minute walk from the cafeteria. Dawn knocked lightly on the closed door. "Leaf? Are you in there?" Dawn asked.

"We want to talk to you. It's no fun without you at lunch. Plus, I might need help with my biology homework, so..." May said before Dawn rolled her eyes and knocked her playfully on her shoulders. Gary chuckled a bit.

Shuffling was heard, followed by faint footsteps and soon enough the clicking of the door was heard until Leaf was face to face with her two best friends. Gary was leaning against the wall beside the doorway. "Hey guys," she said.

"Hey," Dawn said, smiling slightly. "You doing alright? What are you doing in here anyway? I don't think you've ever missed lunch with us. We're your best friends."

Leaf nodded. "I was trying to my biology homework, and...I don't know; I was just so embarrassed. Not because you guys were laughing at me but because I actually believed those rumours about Gary. I mean, I didn't think of the possibility that those rumours might not have even been true. Because of that, I've basically formed a wrong opinion about Gary all this time. That's why I'm embarrassed."

"That's nothing to be embarrassed about, Leafy," Leaf heard Gary say as she looked at the spiky-haired male at the doorway. Her eyes widened. "So you heard a couple of things about me and believed them. No big deal. Though...I am glad that I'm the center of attention in your eyes," he said, a full smirk on his lips.

Leaf huffed a bit, aggravated that her friends brought Gary to listen to their conversation. "Oh, please! Get real, Oak. You're not the center of attention and you never will be. In fact, I still don't like you, even if I do have a slight change of heart for you!" she exclaimed. Both May and Dawn were giving Leaf suggestive looks; they both knew that she was still in denial.

Gary raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

Leaf nodded. "Yes," she said before grabbing her two best friends' arms. "Now if you excuse us, we have to be catching up on lunch. I've been missing out," she said before she walked out, the two girls following her from behind.

Gary was left alone with a smile on his lips, and with the memory of Leaf's words.


3:31pm.

Drew was inspecting the canvas in his hands. After a few minutes of internally debating, he came to a conclusion. "Come on man, it doesn't look that bad," he said. "Maybe you can adjust it and it'll be fine."

Ash, who was currently beside Drew, nodded and added, "Yeah, you're smart, Paul. I'm sure you'll figure something out and try to fix it. Besides, I'm sure Dawn dropped the canvas by accident."

Paul stared at Ash in disbelief. Drew looked at Ash with an 'Are you kidding me' look. "What?" Ash asked once he got notice of everyone's deadpans. "What'd I do?" he asked, being completely oblivious.

"Dude, he literally explained that Dawn dropped the canvas by accident. Were you even listening?" Drew asked.

Ash rubbed the back of his head with his palm sheepishly. "Oh you did? Sorry, I was texting Misty and probably missed that part." To be honest, Paul didn't really have an interest in sharing his personal problems with Ash (he'd let it slide sometimes with Drew, since he was growing accustomed to him anyway). The only reason Ash was here was because Drew was talking to Paul, and Ash had barged into the conversation.

"Ah that Misty chick. So Ashy boy finally has a girlfriend," the chartreuse male teased.

Ash rolled his eyes. "She's not my girlfriend. We literally met two weeks ago. We're just friends."

"Keep telling yourself that buddy."

Paul was starting to get bored at the ridiculous romance talk. He stood there awkwardly watching the two imbeciles talk back and forth about the question of Ash develop feelings for...Misty? For some reason, that name sounded vaguely familiar to him, but he couldn't narrow who it was. "I'm going to the library. I have to tutor Dawn in a while," he decided before Ash and Drew nodded in understanding.

"Hey man do we have basketball practice today?" Ash asked as they began to walk in the interior of the hallway. The bell for last period had rung a few minutes ago.

Drew shook his head. "Nope. Anyways, on a completed unrelated note, what are you doing tonight?"

Ash was taken aback. "Dude I appreciate the offer, but I'm not gay."

Drew rolled his eyes. "I wasn't asking you out smartass. I wouldn't even ask you out if I was gay." Ash was surely offended now. "Look, you know about my strong feelings for May."

Ash scoffed. "I think that's an understatement. You've practically talked about nothing but May since the past week. It's like she's a drug or something. And frankly, it's gotten annoying."

Drew rolled his eyes again. "Whatever. Look man, I really want May to like me back but I don't know, she just continues to play hard to get. Like, a couple of weeks ago, I went over to her place to work on a drama assignment and it was so awkward. Then on the actual day of the presentation, we didn't even talk before the presentation happened. Do you think she's ignoring me? What do you think is happening?"

Ash was surprised he was asking for potential relationship advice from him; a guy who had little to no experience with girls. "Well, I don't know, I really have no idea what goes in a girl's brain." Drew nodded in agreement, and Ash began to think for a while. "Oh, well have you ever considered that maybe she just doesn't like you?"

Drew looked at him in disbelief. "How is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"I never said it would!" Ash retorted.

"Okay well you're coming over to my place so we can make a plan. Or at least a strategy for May to stop ignoring me," Drew said.

Ash rolled his eyes. "Dude, you have got to work more on asking me out."

"For the last time, I'm not gay, you faggot!" Drew yelled as Ash let out a grin.


6:02p.m.

The vehicle pulled up to the familiar area that Dawn had accidentally wounded up on a couple weeks ago. The blunette noticed Paul's rugged looking vehicle next to Paul's house, which probably meant that Paul had reached home already after the brief tutoring lesson in the library earlier. Dawn looked over at her brunette friend. "Thanks May, I'll call you later," she said, turning around to reach for the car door.

"Are you sure that you want to do this? Don't you think you'd be better off just leaving Paul alone?"

Dawn looked back at May and frowned. "Maybe. But that doesn't change the fact that I feel guilty, regardless of whether it was an accident or not. It's not about the painting, May. He worked really hard on this. The least I could is just help the guy for a few hours and go home."

May sighed, consumed by her thoughts for a while. Dawn always seemed to have a heart of gold, and was always so selfless. May noticed that her blunette friend would go out of her way to do anything to help someone, and this was one of those scenarios. Honestly, May felt like a lousy human being sitting next to her. "I guess you're right," she said, forcing out a smile.

Dawn grinned. "Okay, so I'll see you later," she said before opening the car door and closing it behind her. The two girls waved before Dawn saw the vehicle back up and was then on the road again.

Dawn let out a deep breath before looking at Paul's place of residence. Paul's house was small, a bit dilapidated, and she also noticed a bit of paint that was scraped off. It was a huge and remarkable difference from May's place; where it was big, spacious and fairly new. She walked towards the porch and then she knocked lightly on the dark brown door. She waiting for a few minutes and then decided to knock a bit louder again.

After a few seconds, the door creaked open, and Dawn smiled when Paul looked down at her in slight shock. He slightly groaned to himself. "What are you doing here? If you want more tutoring, you're going to have to wait intil tomorrow," Paul said, about to close the door when Dawn placed her foot in between.

Paul looked at her expectedly. "This isn't about Math, Paul," she said. Paul raised an eyebrow. "Look, I feel guilty about dropping your painting and ruining it a little, which is why I'm here to help you out. I know you worked really hard on it, so I wouldn't want your hard work to go to waste because of me."

He crossed his arms and sighed. "What could you possibly do? You can't help me. I doubt that you would even know how to paint and how to fix the smudges. It doesn't make sense," he said.

Dawn nodded in agreement. "True, I may know little to nothing about painting, but that doesn't mean I don't have a creative side in me." Paul scoffed. "I can give you suggestions on how to fix it and make it better."

Paul looked at her in confusion. "I think you're just wasting your time. The most you'll do here is probably ruin it some more."

Dawn knew that arguing with Paul would be pointless, so she practically ignored him and walked past him and into the interior of his place. "Well, I'm not going to leave. Plus, even if you wanted me to leave, I don't have a ride and I doubt you'd give me a ride home," she said, smirking to herself.

Paul muttered something incoherently to himself before he closed the door in defeat. "Fine. Do what you want, but after this, you're leaving." He demanded.

She turned around to face him. "Oh, don't worry I don't have any intentions to stay here," she said before sitting on Paul's couch.

Paul rolled his eyes before he headed into the kitchen and let out a loud groan. His hands curled into fists, but for some reason, his heartbeat was accelerating. Shaking his thoughts away, he took out a glass and filled it with water before he re-entered the living room. He set the glass on the small coffee table beside Dawn, to which she looked at in slight shock before she began to gulp it down.

"Thanks," she said, before setting the empty glass on the coffee table again. Paul didn't say anything but nodded.

He then walked over to the other side of the room where his smudged up painting of Reggie was currently standing. He noticed the eyes, a bit of the nose, and the lips were smudged, so perhaps all he had to do was fill the paint in carefully.

"Sorry, I don't mean to interrupt your creative process here," Paul heard Dawn say, "But if you think there's anything I could do to help, then please let me know,"

Paul sighed. "Look-" he stopped himself short before a thought came into his mind. "...Okay. I know how you can help me."

Dawn perked up before Paul turned around to face her. "Really?"

"To get my creative process to flow, I usually have a cup of coffee. Black coffee, to be specific. It helps me concentrate," he said.

Dawn nodded in understanding. "Oh, okay. No problem! I'll make you a cup of black coffee," she said before heading into the kitchen.

Paul slightly smirked to himself before he picked up the brush, and started to carefully adjust the painting.


By the time Dawn had made the coffee, Paul was done adjusting the eyes and forehead. He was pretty satisfied with how it came out the second time; in fact it may have even been better done the first time. Now he was currently doing Reggie's nose.

Dawn was currently cleaning up in the living room. Paul had mentioned that he was somewhat of a neat freak and said that his concentration increased more if he was surrounded by a clean environment. She was currently dusting up the couch. "Is this clean enough?" she asked aloud so Paul could hear her.

He turned around, not even looking at where she was pointing at, and said, "No. You missed a spot."

Dawn was confused. She had dusted all the couch cushions, vaccumed the floors, and even organized the books. "Where? It looks clean enough to me," she said before realizing Paul wasn't paying her any heed. She put her hands on her hips. "Okay this is ridiculous! From the moment I got here, I've been nothing but your personal assistant. I'm not even helping with your painting!" she exclaimed before walking towards Paul, whose back was facing her.

Paul turned around and couldn't help but to let out a small smirk. "Exactly."

Dawn's jaw dropped. "I can't believe this. You were taking advantage of me this entire time! Even after you made me feel guilty and me coming over here to help you!"

Paul rolled his eyes. "I needed silence. Plus, if you were to actually help me paint, you'd end up ruining it even more, which is why I had to make you do all of the other tasks."

Dawn was still furious; he still had no right to take advantage of her like that. She came over to Paul's place to make things right, but instead she ended up being an assistant. Without thinking, she instantly picked up a brush and painted roughly against Paul's face to convey how mad she was. Suddenly, Dawn's anger had descelerated and she was now more shocked at what she had done. A red line of paint was now seen on Paul's cheek. "I'm...I'm really sorry, I don't know what I was thinking-"

Dawn was cut off when she yelped as she was pulled roughly closer to Paul. Dawn widened her eyes as she saw him grab a brush. With nowhere to escape, Paul brushed against Dawn's face roughly on both her cheeks; this time it was purple. Paul's hand on her waist loosened and Dawn pushed him back. Unfazed, Paul took a napkin and wiped the red line of paint off his cheek.

Dawn crossed her arms in annoyance. Paul noticed her pouting and rolled his eyes. "You were asking for it," he said before handing her a napkin.

She reluctantly took the napkin and wiped her face before she yelled, "I was mad, okay? I didn't deserve this, Paul! I was just trying to help because I felt bad about ruining your painting, and then you take advantage of me. How could you do this?!"

Paul seemed nonchalant, but then he sighed. "Fine. I realize it was wrong, but like I said, I needed silence and I didn't want the painting to get any more ruined."

Dawn was about to yell some more but then stopped herself short at Paul's words. "Wait...are you actually admitting you're wrong?"

"I don't speak French, Dawn," was Paul's sarcastic reply.

A light smile was formed on Dawn's lips. "Well...that was a lot easier than I thought it would be."


Alright, this chapter was mainly revolved around oldrivalshipping and ikarishipping. Question: Which pair do you think is likely to get together first?

Did you guys enjoy this chapter? I know I enjoyed writing it, thats for sure. Be sure to leave a review below telling me what you think. Also, I'm unsure of when the next update will be, considering I've got my hands tied with college work so far. Just be patient guys!

See you next time!