Hey, everyone! Sentai Red here with something special!
I've decided to go and create a Gaiden Episode. What is a Gaiden Episode? Well, they're side stories, to kind of act as filler episodes or to give backstory to characters. Some are there just for the fun of it, some are there to give you all a reason to enjoy the characters in the story! It also helps me out with writing the newest chapters, giving me more time to write. I have plans for more in the future, so look forward to seeing them pop up!
It's late at night. The Moon is hitting the window with its rays, and Serena can't sleep.
She gives off an audible sigh, covering her mouth when she forgot there were people sleeping in the room with her. The good thing is that no one heard, or even reacted to it. She turns her head and smiles, amused at Ash's sleeping position. That boy she likes so much is such a mess! There he is, legs spread across the bed, his arm dangling to the floor, with a pillow over his face. She notices Froakie and Pikachu sleeping on the pillow and his chest respectively. The good thing is that Froakie isn't heavy enough to suffocate Ash, otherwise that could have been an accident waiting to happen. His light snoring was an indicator that he was alright, so she just lets it be.
She looks up to see Brock, on the top bunk, sleeping with a firm grasp of his pillow. He has a dopey smile, whispering something that she can't seem to decipher at all. Despite Brock being an awesome caretaker and friend, he's also rather creepy sometimes. She still hasn't gotten over his infatuations with women older than him. The first time she saw him trying to flirt with Nurse Joy in Pewter City was a rather interesting time. Sure, Nurse Joy seemed unfazed by it, but it just makes Serena think how many times he's done that to the poor woman. Maybe she should talk to him about how to handle women?
Then she looks to her side of the bunk bed and sees Misty sleeping soundly, the most normal of the three currently sleeping.
Opening her tablet, she notices what time it is and pouts, her cheeks puffing up at the time: 01:14 AM.
She doesn't have to be up in another seven hours, so she decides to just look at her tablet and just scroll through the internet. Although she can't sleep, her eyes didn't expect to be blinded when she opened up the wrong app on her tablet. She almost shrieked but bit her tongue to not do so. Getting her eyes accustomed to the bright light emitting from the tablet, she looks to see that she clicked on the Gallery App on her tablet. Deciding to take a trip down memory lane, she began to scroll through the images, smiling at some and deleting some she wishes she hadn't taken pictures of. Her eye twitches at one, where she and Calem were both almost butt naked, playing in the river on the outskirts of Vaniville Town. Her mom decided to take a picture of it, and because of how technology works, that image has been backed up on the cloud on her account.
She deletes it, not wanting her friends to accidentally see that image. Especially Ash. She would be mortified if he saw that!
Then, once she deleted the picture, another image loaded in, and her eyes widen before she began tearing up. She covers her mouth as she gasps lightly. She smiles, staring at the image and begins to reminisce about that very day. It was a drawing, but it was a very special drawing. Her mom even had it scanned to her computer, as a memento. While she may have lost the original drawing over time, the memory of how it came to be will never be forgotten. She can still remember how it all began.
Gaiden 1: The Drawing
"Night, 'Rena! I'm heading off to bed now!"
It was one of their daily calls, something Serena always waited patiently for. As much as she didn't want Ash to go, she knew it was getting late in Kanto. With a heavy heart, she waved to him over the video call, "Good night, Ash! Sleep well and sweet dreams!" She chirped at him, giving him a cute smile. Ash grinned tiredly at her, nodding at her request, before disconnecting the call between the two of them. They had talked for at least a good hour and a half, more than what they're usually allotted. On average, they're given an hour of talk time between the two of them, but lately, Serena has been wanting more and more time with Ash.
Mrs. Ketchum and her mom both told them that during the weekends, they're given more time to talk to one another, but the weekdays were a lot harder since they had to go to school. While their schools weren't anything out of the ordinary, Ash was given the chance to also learn about Pokémon with Professor Oak after school, and as such, wasn't always allowed to talk past his bedtime.
"Serena, dear!" She heard her mom call out to her.
"Yeah, momma?" She answered back, getting up from her stool. Despite being eight years old, she still wasn't as tall as some of the household items. The video phone, for example, needed her to sit on an adult stool just to even have a chance of getting in view of the camera. Ash at least had an older model video phone where the camera was at the bottom of the monitor, making it easier for him to be seen. Hers was more up to date but had the camera at the top of the monitor. Her short stature made it near impossible for her sometimes to be seen. Luckily, her mom had some stools and books to help prop Serena up. Serena pushed the chair in, making sure the books didn't fall. She needed them, after all.
"What do you want for dinner?" Her mom shouted from the kitchen. Serena's stomach growled at the mention of dinner. Sometimes she wondered if she was acting more like Ash…
"Uh, that yummy chicken stew you make me with the red juice!"
"Okay, sweetie! One coq au vin coming right up!"
Given that the 'yummy chicken stew with the red juice' usually took a long time to make, Serena ran to her room. She decided to just spend some time in her room until her mom would call for her. She sat down, cross legged, with her arms crossed, thinking about what to do. Should she play with her dolls? Nah, she played with them already. Plus, there was a new doll set coming out and her birthday was coming up, so maybe she can hint that to her mom? Looking around, she saw her small art table. She smiled, her eyes shining at the fact she had brand new crayons factory sealed! She ran to her table and sat down in her chair.
She ripped the seal off her crayon box and gaped at all the colors she had at her disposal! 128 crayons!
Deciding it was probably a good time to use them, she grabbed a sketch pad, and ripped off one of the papers.
Putting it on the table, she thought of what to draw. She looked around, trying to find something to inspire her. Then it hit her, she saw her playhouse set back that she kept since she was 6 years old. Now, she hasn't played with that playhouse set in such a long time, but she saw something that made her eyes just gleam: there were two dolls, one adult woman doll and one girl doll. What she saw inspired her to begin drawing. She looked over the many colors, thinking of the countless possibilities. She then grabbed the colors she needed and started to draw.
She grabbed the black crayon first, using it to draw the outlines of the characters. Using the black crayon, she began to create the eyes and mouths of the characters. She just made the eyes dots, and the smile was a basic upward curve. While she wasn't a Delacroix, she still enjoyed drawing and often drew cute costumes and dresses that she would often imagine herself dressing up in. Sometimes she would even draw cute suits that she could imagine Ash wearing.
Happy with the characters she drew, she started to draw around them. Still using the black crayon, she drew the outlines of the grass around them, the trees, and a house. She then proceeds to use the colors necessary for her opus to truly shine. Sticking her tongue out, she began to color in all the outlines with intense focus. She continued to color and when she needed a certain sharpness to the color, as she wanted to add shading thinking it would look cooler, she grabbed her crayon box and behind it was a sharpener. She began to sharpen some crayons to get them to be sharp to be more precise in her shading.
Thinking about it, she needed to thank her mom for getting these crayons.
She continued to draw and color in her creations, adding more things to it. Then she also grabbed another piece of paper, drawing on that as well. Before she knew it, she had to stop because she was getting all the crayon shavings all over her arms. Whining, she got up from her chair, and proceeded to go to the bathroom to wash her arms. It was right after that she heard her mom call for her. "Yeah?" She asked, drying her hands and arms with a towel.
"Dinner is ready!"
Getting excited, she went to her room, and grabbed the piece of paper. She rushed downstairs, holding the paper close to her chest, proud of what she drew. Seeing that her mom was already getting the utensils out and bowls out, she walked slowly to her mom and greeted her, "Hi, momma!"
Her mom looked over, seeing a happy Serena, swaying back and forth with a piece of paper held tightly on the young girl's chest. "Oh? What's that you got there, Serena?" Her mom asked her curiously.
Serena just grinned, a blush forming on her cheeks, as she presented the picture to her mom, "Ta-da!"
Grace inspected the drawing with a gasp. She looked over to see a happy Serena and she hugged her daughter happily, "Oh, my goodness! Serena, did you draw that?" She asked her daughter with pride, encouraging her daughter. Serena nodded happily, looking even happier at her mom's reaction! Her mom wiped a tear from her eyes, "And who are these people, Serena?" She already knew, but she played dumb for her daughter, wanting her to explain everything.
"Momma, you should know! That's us!" She pointed to an adult woman with brown curly hair and a small girl, with a mix of golden yellow and slight tint of brown crayons to indicate hair cascading to the girl's back. "See, that's you with the brown hair and me with the long hair!" She then points to an odd shaped, gray colored four-legged creature with a happy smile on its face. "And that's Rhyhorn!" Serena began to explain that she saw her old dollhouse set with the momma doll and girl doll, saying how happy they looked living in their big house. She then explained that she wanted to have Rhyhorn there because it's part of the family too.
Her mom tried hard to not cry at how thoughtful Serena's drawing was.
With a sniff, her mom just hugged Serena tightly, with Serena hugging back. Her mom lifted her up, much to her surprise. She held onto her mom, wrapping her arms around her neck. She heard her mom choke back a sob, "Momma?"
Her mom just tightened her hold on her daughter, "I'm fine, Serena. Thank you. I love you."
"Love you too, momma."
Putting her daughter down, Grace wiped away any oncoming tears. Giving her daughter a bright grin, she grabs the drawing and grabs a magnet. She plopped the picture on the fridge with the magnet and gave her daughter a wink, "You're such an artist, young lady. Are you sure you want to be a Rhyhorn Racer? I swear, with this, you can definitely be an artist or something!" She didn't notice her daughter's nervous giggle at that. She stared at the picture, before giving her daughter a final look, "I'm surprised you didn't draw Ash anywhere! Where's he at in this picture?" Her mom turned back to stare at the drawing yet again.
Serena discretely glanced upstairs, "Uh, I'll draw him next time!"
Upstairs, there was another drawing. When she grabbed that other piece of paper and began to draw on it, she also got inspired by another dollhouse set that laid next to the mother-daughter one. That one had a house with a boy doll and a girl doll. They both were sitting on chairs in the kitchen, with a table between them and food on the table. And, if one were to look at the drawing, one could see an adult male and adult female, holding hands with one another with an even bigger house than the one was drawn previously. The adult has black spiky hair, with small zigzag birth marks underneath his dotted eyes. The female, a little shorter than him, had long golden yellow hair, with a tint of brown on it. The two have smiles on their faces.
Written with a black crayon, one could read the scribble-scrabble words on the top right corner that says, "Mr. and Mrs. Ketchum."
