Chapter 2

They were walking along a path and everyone seemed quiet. The morning's events had some sort of effect on the each of them. They were all thinking to themselves, not saying a word and not looking at one another. May's spirit was dampened; she didn't really care anymore about going to Lilycove as much as before. Instead, she was thinking about how Ash had reacted to what she said. It was right after she commented on Brock's cooking that he got quiet, and she couldn't understand what could have made him so different. She kept on wondering about him and if he was okay. She would glance at him sometimes and see that he still had that kind of dazed look on his face. He was definitely thinking about something, but she just couldn't figure out what it was. They kept walking, but then May had asked herself a new question. Why was she all of a sudden worrying about Ash so much? She shook off this thought and looked up ahead. As she did this Pikachu started to run ahead of the group. The three looked at each other and started to run after him. They finally caught up to Pikachu, who was looking at a sign.

"Pikachu, what did you do that for?" asked Ash. Just then he looked at the sign in front of him. "PIKA PIKA!"

"It says…'Lilycove City- 15 miles'…Yay! We're almost there!" exclaimed May.

"Boy, that's definitely some good news right there! Oh man! Guys! We've been so busy walking that we forgot to look at the time!" said Brock.

"Brock, you're right! It's already around 4 o'clock and we haven't even eaten since breakfast," said Ash.

May's stomach grumbled again and all of them laughed. The tension between the group eased up and they stopped in a meadow for a quick lunch. After some sandwiches, they started walking along the path again, all of them in a much better mood. Pikachu was the one that responsible for that. As they would walk along, Pikachu would occasionally run up a tree and throw an apple at Brock, and then he would get mad while Ash and May laughed at him. Of course, after a while Ash told Pikachu to stop, just out of pity for the lump on Brock's head. They walked for a couple more hours and came upon another sign. May was the one to read it out loud again.

"Lilycove City- 5 miles. Let's get there tonight guys!"

"May, it's only five miles, what difference does it make if we get there tomorrow?" said Brock. "Besides, I don't know about you, but I'm tired and want some sleep!"

They didn't have to argue about it for long because Ash was already getting out his sleeping bag. He looked at them, smiled and said innocently, "What? I'm just doing what Brock said to do." May looked from Ash to Brock and she just gave in. It was getting dark and she didn't want to have to walk at night. The three of them started a little campfire because the night air was a bit chilly. Each of them got comfortable in their own sleeping bags and they started to doze off.

"Goodnight Brock…goodnight Ash…" said May.

Brock was on the other side of the fire so she couldn't really hear if he said anything back but she looked to see if Ash would have said something. As she did, she saw Pikachu looking at her again with that look he gave her in the morning when she woke up Ash. She couldn't even begin to understand what was wrong with Pikachu, he was just so distant from her and it seemed like he was really angry with her. So she said in a quiet tone, "Goodnight Pikachu."

Ash opened his eyes slightly and yawned. "Night…"

He closed his eyes and turned around to face away from her. She was shocked at this. It was so abrupt; it was as if he didn't even want to have anything do with her at all. May wondered about Ash's behavior for a long time. It seemed like forever. She just lay awake looking at the stars. Thinking about him this much bothered her a lot; she hadn't felt like this before. After looking at the sky for what seemed like hours, it finally dawned on her that she was most likely developing a crush on Ash. Why else would she have bothered so much about him? Every second he was on her mind and it could mean nothing else. She came to understand this sometime after she said goodnight and she looked at him again. Ash was sleeping peacefully, along with Pikachu and Brock. May's thoughts stopped her from falling asleep so she just sat up and looked into the dying firelight. After a couple of minutes, it finally died out and the campsite was completely dark except for the moonlight. It was so peaceful, but then May jumped when out of the blue, Ash had turned abruptly in his sleep to face her. She looked at him and saw that his face was in anguish. She got really worried and whispered,

"Ash? … Ash? Are you okay? Ash?"

He stirred at the sound of her voice and said in his sleep, "I'm…sorry…really…I tried…Mis…Misty…"

His voice faded and then after a couple of minutes his expression became calm. It had looked like he had a bad dream, or something along the lines of that. Ash was still sleeping and his face looked as angelic as a baby's. What Ash had said was really surprising to May. She had never heard Ash say anything in his sleep, but it explained a lot. Well, not that much, but she finally figured out the reason why he was always so sad. It seemed, from what he said, that he had done something to someone named Misty, or that something happened to this Misty and he blamed himself. Yes. That was it. It had to be. That was so sweet, he was worried about someone. It was just like him to do that. She laid back down in her sleeping bag and gazed at the stars one more time. Her eyes began to get tired, and finally she fell asleep.