¤~A Thousand Miles~¤
by Scrat with a G
Chapter Three
Ash and Brock began heading over to the boys' cabins on the south end of the arena, while Misty made her way to the girls' cabins on the north side.
"Her favorite color is orange," Brock sang.
"Brock, do you think you could act your age and not your shoe size if we have to room together?" Ash asked.
"But she's so beautiful!" Brock gushed. "I think I'm in love!"
"Yeah, I get that," Ash replied. "But it gets really, really annoying after a while."
"I'll try," Brock said. The color was receding from his cheeks. "…But how can I resist her?"
Ash rolled his eyes and opened the door to the middle cabin. There were already two boys their age in the cabin, having claimed two of the top bunks already. They were laughing and joking with each other from their cots. Ash and Brock wordlessly claimed their bunks – Ash chose a top one, and Brock selected the one underneath Ash's.
Just as they were getting settled, Riley's voice rang out over the intercom that was hooked up inside the cabins.
"Dinnertime," she announced. "Report to the mess hall in five minutes." She ended the transmission with a faint crackling sound and a click.
Brock and Ash, along with the two boys, left the cabin and walked to the mess hall, which was the same building they had registered in, according to their new roommates. During the walk, the boys introduced themselves as Jesse and Chris. Jesse was fifteen and Chris was seventeen, and they were best friends.
Once they were inside, Ash noticed that instead of a bunch of chairs scattered across the floor, there were now four or five circular tables lined up neatly, with five chairs surrounding them. The four boys took their seats. Misty showed up not too long afterward.
"Hey, Ash, hey, Brock," she greeted them. "I see you've made some new friends!"
"Yeah, this is Jesse and this is Chris," Ash introduced them. Jesse had blonde hair and green eyes, and was about Ash's height, and Chris had brown eyes and hair to match that was spiked in about every possible direction. Not counting his hair, he was about an inch taller than Jesse.
"Nice to meet you!" Misty chirped.
"You too," Chris agreed. He and Jesse smiled.
"I'll go get the food," Misty volunteered, noticing that Riley had just set out the trays with the large bowls of spaghetti and the pitchers of milk. She got up and retrieved the tray.
"Do you want me to go grab some food for our Pokèmon?" Brock asked.
"Sure, sure," Ash replied. This would give him some more time to ponder over where he'd seen Riley before. He had barely been thinking for more than half a minute when Chris interrupted his thoughts.
"Whatcha thinking 'bout?"
"Oh, nothing," Ash sighed. Misty had just returned with the food. Ash spooned some spaghetti onto his plate and passed the bowl to Jesse.
He was about halfway through his spaghetti when he noticed that Brock hadn't come back yet.
"Where's Brock?" he asked aloud.
"I dunno. Did you send him to get anything?"
"Yeah, he went to go get food for the Pokèmon," Ash replied. He glanced over at the table containing the Pokèmon food. Brock was leaning on it with one hand, and was flirting frantically with Riley. Riley looked terribly frightened. "Oh no," Ash moaned. He abandoned his meal and dashed over to Brock.
"So, Riley, wanna go grab some dinner with me tomorrow night?" Brock was saying.
"I, um, have paperwork to do tomorrow…" Riley covered, trying to get away.
"Brock!" Ash shouted. He shook his head and said, softer, "Let's leave Riley alone. You're frightening her…" He grabbed Brock by the wrist and dragged him back to the table.
Once Ash had succeeded in getting his friend back to his seat (which, let me assure you, wasn't an easy task), Brock passed some of the camp Pokèmon food around. Ash offered some to Pikachu, who took it greedily before dumping half a bottle of ketchup on it and messily devouring it.
Jesse extended some food to his Furret, and Chris did the same to his Girafarig. (a/n: I gave Chris a Girafarig because I noticed this morning that Chris from Dream Street has an unusually long neck… mwahaha.)
Once everyone had finished their meals, Riley took her place at the podium once again and announced, "May I have your attention please?"
Everyone turned to face her.
"You may spend the next couple of hours doing whatever you want. Lights out in four hours, at ten o'clock. Remember, no battling without my supervision. We will begin the actual training tomorrow after breakfast," she told them. "That's all."
There was a frenzy as everyone struggled to be the first to bus their trays and dishes to the counter. Ash and Company waited until everyone had finished killing each other in the process, then Misty calmly took up their tray, stepping over the unconscious bodies, and they left the mess hall.
"Hey, any of you wanna battle?" Chris suggested.
"Riley said not to battle without supervision," Brock pointed out.
"Has that ever stopped me before?" Chris asked Jesse, who shook his head. He looked back at the three. "Do you always follow rules?"
"Usually." Ash crossed his arms.
"Chicken!" Chris teased. He folded his arms under his armpits, like wings, and flapped them around while making clucking sounds. Ash scowled.
"I'm not chicken, and I'll prove it!" he said loudly. "Go, Charizard!"
"Girafarig, I choose you!"
Both of their Pokèmon had been released, and were glaring at each other with an expression of intense hatred as they waited for their trainers to give them the first command…
(a/n: Hey, look, Ara, I made another chapter! Whee! And before you ask, yes, Jesse and Chris are modeled off of Jesse and Chris from Dream Street. I couldn't resist. But no, I'm not going to make Riley fall in love with Jesse. It'd get redundant, even for me. Okay, I'm done babbling now. So review. I don't care if you just say "hi" as long as you review. And remember –- lots of nice reviews get you A/M fluff!)