Chapter 22

Four against one, fair or unfair?

"C'mon, guys, lets get going!" Brock called out.

Brock was in his swimming trunks standing outside the hotel room door. They were blue with a yellow stripe going down the sides. The surfboard was leaning against the wall while Brock placed his arm against it so it wouldn't fall down. He was eager to head down to the waves and see how well the surfboard floats but Ash and Max were taking an awfully long time to change.

Max stepped out of the bathroom door in the suite with his green bathing suit on. He held his glasses in his right hand. Ash was busy looking through his backpack on his bed while Pikachu stood beside him.

"Hey, Ash," Max called out, "Do you think I should wear my glasses down at the beach?"

Ash looked up at him as he pulled his black swimming trunks out of his backpack, "Sure, why not, Max?"

"Remember what happened last time we went to a beach? A big wave knocked me over and I lost my glasses in the water," Max said, looking at his glasses in his hand, "May yelled at me for losing them and went ballistic. Luckily you came over and calmed my sister down and found my glasses in the water. I'm worried about that happening again."

Ash took off his hat and sweatshirt and rested them on the bed. He lifted his black orange striped T-shirt off his body and placed that inside his backpack. Ash turned to Max while he was only wearing his sweatpants.

"I think you should take your glasses anyway, you do need them to see better, right?" Ash asked.

"Well, yeah, but I don't want my sister hitting me again if I lose them," Max sighed.

"Don't worry about that, Max," Ash smiled as he walked over to the bathroom door holding his bathing suit in his hand, "If she gets mad at you I'll just calm her down again. She usually listens to me whenever she gets into a fight with you."

"Heh, thanks, Ash. You sure know how to handle my big sister," Max chortled as he put his glasses on.

Ash turned the doorknob of the bathroom and stepped inside to get some privacy. He shut the door and looked at himself in the mirror. He rubbed his hand gently over the back of his head where he had injured himself a few days before. He still had a slight bump where the tree branch had hit him.

"I hope this will be gone soon," Ash said to himself disappointingly.

He then quickly pulled off his sweatpants and placed them aside. He took off his boxers as he stood in the room completely naked. He rubbed a scratch on the side of his right leg as he pulled his black bathing suit up his body. The bathing suit was a dark black color that Ash, and strangely enough, May seemed to like. He picked up his sweatpants and boxers from the side and exited the bathroom.

"Pikachu, pika!" Pikachu called out as Ash walked out in his bathing suit.

"I'm all ready now, Pikachu," Ash said, "I might as well pick a drawer to put my clothes in though."

"Why don't you just leave them in your backpack like always?" Max asked.

"Seems kinda silly to let all this furniture in this room go to waste though, right, Max?" Ash said, "Since we'll be staying here for a week there's no reason to keep everything stuffed in my backpack if I don't need to."

"That's true," Max replied, "I bet my sister and Brock already chose drawers that they put their clothes in. I kinda left my clothes on my bed."

"I'll just pick a drawer that hasn't been used yet," Ash said while looking at the wooden furniture against the wall.

He decided to walk over to the cabinet with huge double doors in the center of the furniture set. He figured that May and Brock already put their clothes in the drawers from the dresser, so the cabinet should be empty. He pulled on the knobs of the cabinet doors but for some reason they wouldn't open. He tried pulling harder but apparently the doors of the cabinet were stuck.

"Need some help, Ash?" Max asked.

"Sure, this cabinet doesn't want to open," Ash grunted as he tried pulling the knobs one more time, "Stand behind me and try pulling me by my stomach. Maybe the doors will fling open then."

Max complied as he walked behind Ash and grabbed him around the stomach. The two boys pulled as hard as they could so that the cabinet doors would open. Pikachu watched intently from the bed.

"Damn, this thing must be glued shut or something!" Ash grunted loudly.

Max pulled on Ash's body harder, "I think you're right!"

Suddenly, the force of the two boys got the cabinet doors to fling open. The sudden opening of the doors forced Ash and Max to fall backwards on the floor. A bunch of clothing then fell out of the cabinet doors and on top of the boys. They sat up and looked at the clothing on top of them.

Max pulled a red shirt off the top of his head, he immediately recognized it, "This is my sister's!" he shouted.

Ash had May's blue spandex shorts laying on top of his head with something else underneath it. In his lap lay her bandana, her white skirt, and her socks. He moved her clothing off his lap.

"I guess we know which drawer May chose," Ash said disgruntled, looking above at her shorts on top of his head.

"The clothing must have been caught in the door which is why it didn't open, or something," Max said astutely.

"Pika pika," Pikachu laughed on the bed.

Ash pulled her shorts off his head as something else lay on top of him underneath – It was May's bra.

"Pika?"

Ash and Max looked at each other nervously as May's pink bra rested on top of Ash's head. The strap of the bra slid off his hair and dangled in front of his eyes. He looked at the bra strap bewildered.

"Erm...this had to be in there too, you know," Ash said, jumping up nervously as his face turned a deep red of embarrassment. He pulled her bra off his head and looked at it in his hands, "Uh, I don't think I should be touching this!"

Ash stood there nervously scratching his face as Max snatched his sisters' bra out of his hands, "Give me that!" Max said, "That's my sisters and I don't think she'd want you touching it either."

"I know, Max, but it just kinda fell on top of me," Ash shrugged his shoulders as his face was deep red.

Max picked up the rest of her clothing from the floor and held it all – Her red shirt, bandana, skirt, shorts, socks, and bra. The little sibling blushed slightly as he walked over to the cabinet to push them all back in. He pushed her clothing deep into the cabinet and closed the doors, except for the fact that one thing still wasn't inside.

"Uh…Max?" Ash said, pointing at something hanging on the edge of the cabinet door.

"Hm?" Max looked up and saw May's pink panties hanging along the edge of it. "Oh I forgot about this!"

He quickly opened the cabinet doors and slid her panties off the top and threw them deep into the cabinet where her other clothes were. The boy shook his head as he looked maturely at the ground.

"I can't believe you saw that, Ash," Max said maturely, "My sister doesn't want anyone seeing her underwear."

"I wouldn't want anyone seeing my underwear either! Why would she? That's pretty funny isn't it, hey, Pikachu, isn't that funny?" Ash called out nervously, rubbing the back of his head.

"Pikachu pika?" Pikachu cocked its head.

"I guess if you grew up with her like I did you would understand, but she's pretty crazy about that too," Max said, "We're not going to tell her about this, are we?"

"What?!" Ash leaped toward Max, "Of course not! I'm not going to tell her that all her stuff fell out of the cabinet on top of us. I'll just pick a different drawer."

"Make sure it's an empty one this time, Ash," Max insisted.

"Eheh sure," Ash said, picking up his sweatpants and boxers.

He opened the middle drawer of the dresser – which to his delight was empty – and he dropped his apparel inside and shut it. He turned to the side and noticed that May's fannypack was resting on top the dresser.

"I wonder why she didn't put her bag in with all her clothes," Ash said.

"Who knows? I think my sister is crazy enough as it is, no use trying to figure her out now," Max said.

Ash chuckled upon listening to Max's opinion about his older sister. He chalked it up to sibling rivalry and snickered.

Brock opened the door of the suite quickly and peered inside, "What the heck is taking you two so long?" he yelled inside impatiently.

"We're ready! We're changed into our bathing suits!" Ash said quickly.

"Well it's about time, now let's head down to the waves already!" Brock said as he closed the door once more.

"Sheesh," Ash said, "C'mon, Pikachu, let's head down to the beach!"

~*~*~*~

The weather was awfully hot as May walked down the boardwalk, examining the clubs as she passed them by. The humidity made the weather feel well over 90 degrees, which is why it was no surprise that so many people were heading down to the beach to cool off in the waves. May wiped some sweat off her brow as she was quite relieved that she was walking through this heat in her bikini. She knew that had she been wearing her usual tight red outfit and blue shorts, her clothing would be sticking to her body in the blistering sun.

She turned to the left as a particular club caught her eye. The entire place was an outdoor eating area, with only the workers, vendors and bartenders standing in the small buildings taking customer orders over the counter. There were many wooden picnic tables and other small round tables in the immediate area where several people were eating, drinking, or goofing off. She decided to walk over to the outdoor club and browse through what they had.

"These people look like they're enjoying themselves," May said, walking passed several tables filled with joyous conversations, "Most of them look like they're drinking though. Blech, you'll never catch me doing that."

"Excuse me, little girl?" a female voice said quite snobbishly, "Can you get those pretty little slippers of yours off my bag?"

"Huh?" May said nervously, looking around her. She looked toward the ground as her right foot was indeed accidentally standing on the edge of a small green backpack, "I'm so sorry!"

May took two steps backwards as she looked at the people ahead of her. Four people were sitting together on a picnic table, two boys and two girls, with one of each gender sitting on one side. The people appeared to be two couples, who from appearance looked like they were in their late teens or early twenties. The first couple turned around to face her as she stepped on their bag.

"You should watch where you're standing next time, little girl," the dark haired woman said as she picked her bag up from the floor and wiped the side where May stepped on it.

May quickly noticed that the people were all shockingly attractive. The four people were all in bathing suits, and the two women looked absolutely gorgeous. One woman had long dark black hair cascading down her back with a body that would put even a supermodel to shame. She was wearing a tight purple bikini that revealed a lot of cleavage, she was obviously wearing the type of bikini just to show her body off. The other girl – who was sitting on the opposite end of the table – was a blonde with blue eyes, with an equally voluptuous body that would make any guy envy her boyfriend instantly. She was wearing a strapless sky blue bikini that barely even covered her large chest. The two guys, who appeared to be the boyfriend of the dark and blonde haired girl respectively, were also quite attractive from May's point of view. They were tall, well-built, muscular and had hair parted down the middle and went down to their shoulders. The guy sitting next to the dark haired woman had light brown colored hair and a face that looked like it was carved by the angels. His bathing suit was blue. The other guy sitting next to the blonde girl had dark hair that was tied into a short ponytail behind his neck. He wore a pair of brown swimming trunks. The four people continued to look at May irritably.

"Uh, girl?" the light haired man said angrily, "Did you apologize to my girl for standing on her bag?"

"I – did!" May said nervously, "I'm…sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going, I apologize."

"You look awfully young to be walking around a place like this," the dark haired woman said, resting her bag down on the floor, "You're not over 16 are you?"

May was quite shocked that the woman actually mistook her for a 16 year old. While her physical appearance and developed body did make her look like a teenager, she was only a pre-teen girl.

"No…" she replied after a small hesitation, "I'm much younger than that."

"Well then what are you doing here?" the blonde haired woman said irritably across the table, "Can't you read the damn signs?"

"What – what signs?" May said, caressing her hair nervously.

"Wow, she's not even a blonde and you know more than she does," the man with the ponytail said to his blonde girlfriend, "Amazing."

"Oh shut up, Chaz," the blonde woman playfully slapped his shoulder.

"Alright, I promise no more dumb blonde jokes, Eliza," Chaz said, cracking a smile.

May stood there looking at them dumbfounded. She wasn't sure if they were still talking to her or not. She looked down at the other couple, who for some reason were still looking at her with angry demeanors.

"Hello? Brunette girl?" Eliza said again in a mocking tone, "Did you even bother to read the signs before you walked in here?"

May began to open her mouth before the dark haired girl answered for her.

"Don't be silly, Eliza," the dark haired woman known as Precita said, "She's just going to say "What signs?" again. It's in her nature, you can tell how insecure she is just by looking at her."

"Ha, you're right babe," the light haired boyfriend said, smiling at her.

"Aren't I always, Dan?" Precita said in a know-it-all tone.

May found herself slightly miffed that the four people seemed to be making fun of her. She didn't know what to say.

"Brunnette girl, the sign in the entrance to this club says that you have to be at least 18 years of age to enter. Since you don't look any older than 16, it's obvious that you're too young to be in here. They serve drinks here, you know," Precita said glaringly.

"I didn't notice that," May said in a friendly tone, "Thanks for telling me though, I wasn't going to buy any drinks anyway. I was just looking around."

"Little girls like you shouldn't be walking into places that are for people nearly twice your age you know," Dan said mockingly, "Why don't you just scoot yourself out of here now like a nice little girl?"

"Oh don't be so rude, Dan," Chaz said from across the table, "She just made an honest mistake of pure stupidity. We all make mistakes of stupidity sometimes don't we? Just like she was stupid enough to step on Precita's backpack and not notice it."

The table erupted with laughter that lasted a few seconds. May found her eyes twitching and her face growing red from embarrassment.

"Hey, brunette girl!" Eliza called out after pushing aside her glowing blonde hair, "Do you have a name or are we going to continue referring to you by your hair color?"

May hesitated as she didn't want to reply to a group of people who seemed to enjoy mocking her. Nevertheless, May's sweet and naïve personality prevailed as she wanted to make up with the group of two couples.

"It's…it's May," she said shaky as she clasped her hands in front of her body, "My name is May."

"We heard you the first time, May, you don't have to repeat your name to us twice," Chaz said annoyingly as he rested his face on his elbow on the table.

Precita turned around at the table and stared at May in her dark red bikini. She rolled her eyes and scratched her face.

"That's a pretty tacky bikini you have there," a cheeky Precita said, "You actually think you look good in that?"

May looked down at her body nervously. She placed her hands at her sides and nodded insecurely.

"She sure won't win any beauty awards from me," Dan said, cracking a few laughs, "She surely can't compare to your beauty, Precita."

Precita smiled as she stood up from the table and walked up in front of May. May backed up a bit as Precita was quite a lot taller than her, she looked nearly 5'9". Precita placed her hands on her hips as she thrust her voluptuous body toward her. May looked at her quite confused as the purple bikini barely covered her chest as it is.

"Where'd you get that tacky old bikini anyway?" Precita asked snobbishly, "The dark red color looks nice but it looks way too conservative. You should try exposing yourself more, you'll get more attention from boys that way too."

"Well…it's an old one of mine," May replied timidly, "I…don't wear swimsuits to show off though, I don't want myself looking like I'm about to fall out of my top."

"Heh," Precita said chuckling to herself as she walked back to the table with her hands on her hips. She turned around and sat on the top of the picnic table and placed her feet on the long wooden seat, "It's typical of a young girl like yourself to say that. Your breasts fit your stature well…May is it? You do have a fairly nice body I'll admit, but you're never going to get anywhere wearing a bikini like that."

May blushed and closed her hand near her mouth, "I don't really care. I'm not interested in showing off, I'm not that kind of person."

Precita laughed mockingly, "So it seems. You should plan on investing on some new bikini's someday though."

"I am kinda planning on entering the Pokemon surfing contest that's coming up next week," May said, scratching her shoulder demurely, "I hear the prizes are some money and various swimsuits."

"WHAT?" the group said in unison looking at her with stunned expressions.

"What is it? What did I say now?" May asked nervously.

"You're planning on entering the surfing competition, little girl?" Eliza asked, slamming her hands down on the table, "Are you nuts? The four of us are entering the very same competition!"

"You are? You mean you're all surfers?" May asked unsurely.

"No, genius," Dan said flicking his hair, "We don't know a thing about surfing, but that doesn't matter. All we need is our surfboard and our water Pokemon, and that'll be enough to get us through the race."

"I have news for you, kiddo," Chaz snorted, "If you plan on entering that race then you're going to get absolutely creamed."

"We'll see about that!" May said in a competitive tone.

"I think you need to open up those pretty sapphire eyes of yours a bit more, miss May," Precita said, pushing her hand through her dark black hair, "You're going up against the four of us, not some average folk. We've practiced for this race quite a bit and we're all going to look darn sexy while doing so, right, Dan?"

"Right babe," Dan replied, pulling Precita off the table and making her sit on his lap, "We're going to pull off all the right moves and win with our sex appeal."

Dan hugged Precita tightly around the torso as she sat on his lap facing May.

"Same with us, right, Chaz?" Eliza said flicking her blonde hair.

"You betcha. This little brunette haired girl won't stand a chance, what was her name again? Maya or Maple or something?" Chaz asked.

"May," May uttered unsurely.

Chaz looked up at her irritably as if she had insulted him by saying her own name.

"Did I ask you, brunette?" Chaz replied angrily, "I was asking my blonde bombshell of a girlfriend, not a dimwitted, small little girl like you."

"Oh Chaz you're such a tease," Eliza chuckled.

"Why are you guys acting like such jerks?" May finally blurted out, "Is this all because I accidentally stepped on Precita's bag?"

"No," Precita said rubbing her boyfriends face, "That was the part of it, the other parts were "A," acting like an idiot by walking into a club like this at your age, and "B," actually being stupid enough to think that you can beat us in the Pokemon surfing competition."

May felt the anger swelling up inside of her, apparently being friendly with this group of people was out of the question. She turned around angrily and started walking away.

"By the way, May," Precita called out, "Do you even have a partner for the race?"

May stopped in her tracks and turned around irritably, "What are you talking about? Why would I need a partner?"

"Like hellooooooooo?" Eliza said caressing her blonde hair, "You didn't actually think you'd be racing by yourself did you? Why do you think we're already paired up?"

"Huh?" May asked.

"This race requires two people per surfboard, which is why we're entering as couples," Chaz said, putting his hand on Eliza's shoulder, "What kind of dumbass would actually plan to enter a competition without knowing all the rules?"

May had tears forming in the corner of her eyes. She tried to hold her rage and frustration back by crossing her arms underneath her chest. She knew that nobody here was going to back her up, not even the people sitting at the other tables. She looked timidly around her as she noticed that quite a few other people were listening in on their conversation, and they all stared at May with mocking and grinning expressions as well. She bit her lower lip and quickly wiped a tear out of her right eye, she was being made a spectacle of in front of nearly thirty people.

"Awww…honey don't be breaking down into tears on us," Precita said, getting up off of her boyfriend's lap and sitting back down on the wooden seat, "We're just trying to be competitive. I mean surely you know how people act when they're all trying to win a prize."

"Better go get yourself a partner real soon," Dan said, cracking a smile, "Otherwise you'll be canon fodder before we even start the race. But seeing as how you're just a frail little girl to begin with, you may have trouble finding someone who wants to race with you!"

The table again erupted with laughter.

May grinded her teeth and looked at the ground. She felt like shouting out an insult toward the couples, but knew that it would only cause her to get into more trouble. She hastily turned away from the people at the table and started walking out the club the same way she came. She was walking next to the picnic table that the couples were sitting in when all of a sudden she felt herself trip over something.

"GAH!" May cried as she fell down to the floor.

Her arms were only half out when she tripped, and in doing so the pain shot through her body as soon as her arms made contact with the hard ground. She was laying on the floor face first, with her arms protecting her face. The pain continued to circulate through her arms as she started to lift herself up. They had a few scrapes from the fall as a trickle of blood emerged from her arm.

May looked up to see what she tripped over, only to see that Eliza – the blonde haired girl – had stuck her leg out deliberately to make her fall.

"Did you do that, Eliza?" Precita asked, "Nice one."

"Thanks," Eliza replied in a sassy tone.

The table erupted with laughter yet again, mocking the young trainer for falling.

May rubbed her arms irritably as the pain started to subside. She looked at Eliza furiously.

"What the hell did you do that for?" May yelled.

"No reason really, just to prove that you're going to take a fall to us in the race. Yep, you've fallen to us now and you will fall to us in the future," Eliza replied, "Now go run off crying to your mommy little girl, make sure you at least know how to do that correctly. That way you'll prove to us that the space between your ears is at least filled with something."

The entire club burst into laughter. Not only were the two couples enjoying making a spectacle out of May, but everyone else around her laughed mockingly as well.

May grunted angrily and darted out of the club as fast as she could. Defeated, discouraged, browbeaten, frustrated, and oppressed she could no longer stand the ridicule and pain that the group had caused her. Filled with contempt and the feeling of being worthless, she frantically ran down the boardwalk trying not to bump into people on her way. She just had to get away, get as far away from the humiliation at the club as possible.

She felt her tears cascading down her face as she nervously tried to brush them away. She rubbed the side of her right arm where it was still slightly cut.

"Those guys were assholes," an infuriated May thought to herself, "Why couldn't I stand up for myself? Why did I even continue to stand there while they were ridiculing me?"

She ran to the other side of the boardwalk before she finally ran out of breath and had to make a stop. She sighed as she leaned her back against the wall of a store which was away from the crowd of people walking along the boardwalk.

"Damnit," May whined, wiping the last tear drop away. Her frustration finally caught up with her as her anger replaced her sadness, "Nobody in that entire club cared, they were just laughing in the background as those four people made fun of me."

She wiped the small blood around the scrapes on her arms away. Her arms still had cuts, but it was nothing that wouldn't heal in about a day. She folded them against her chest, as she recalled Precita making fun of her bikini and calling it tacky as well as the comments made about her body.

"I'm glad the others didn't see that," May sighed as she started walking again, "I'd feel so ashamed if my friends knew I let them tear through me like that."

~*~*~~*

Ten minutes later, May was walking aimlessly along the boardwalk with her face facing the floor. Her frustration and rage calmed down a bit but she was still irritated. She was angry at herself for not standing up to those bullies more so than for what they insulted and belittled her about.

She stood in front of a small pebble that was on the boardwalk. She sighed, and gently kicked the pebble ahead of her. She then heard a familiar voice.

"PIKA!"

"Pikachu?" May asked, surprised as she looked up.

The small electric mouse ran up to her and smiled. She looked at the Pokemon affectionately as its trainer walked into view as well.

"Ash!" May said as if she was startled.

Ash stood before her with his hair and bathing suit wet. It was clear that he just came up from swimming in the beach.

"I was looking for you, May," Ash said happily, "We all went down to the waves and tested out the surfboard, it was great! We didn't actually use any of our water Pokemon to pull along the surfboard, but we sure had fun trying to balance on it. Right, Pikachu?"

"Pikachu pika!" Pikachu replied.

May smiled and lowered her arms upon meeting her friends – Ash and Pikachu – a human and a Pokemon who she knew would always be there for her.

"I'm…happy to see you, Ash…Pikachu," May said, looking at them affectionately.

"You don't look too happy," Ash said in a concerned manner, "Did you check out any of those clubs like you wanted to?"

May sighed as Ash noticed her body twitch.

"Yeah I did, there was nothing too interesting. I'm fine otherwise though," May muttered under her breath.

"Uh, are you sure? You don't seem as upbeat as you usually do," he said.

May timidly looked at Ash in the eyes. From the way her eyes started to wobble, he knew that something was troubling her. There was a slight moment of silence before Ash spoke again.

"C'mon," Ash said as he reached his hand over to her, "Pikachu and I are going to head back down to the water so we can swim again. Brock and Max are still there playing, I came up to the boardwalk to see if you wanted to join us."

"Really? You came all the way back up here just for me?" May asked.

"Of course, we shouldn't all be having fun while you're not. There are a lot of big waves down at the beach right now too, we can swim together if you want," Ash said tenderly.

May smiled, reaching out her arm allowing Ash to take her hand.

"Pikachu, chu pika!" Pikachu said happily as it started running back toward the sand.

Ash returned her smile as he led her by the hand walking toward the beach. May beamed with confidence as she held his hand tightly with reassurance.

May thought to herself, "At least I know one thing…my friends will always be there for me…"

She looked at him affectionately as they ran down the beach hand in hand.

"…especially Ash."