Friday Madness

... So I got home, ate the rest of Serena's delicious cookies, they tasted great! After that I went through the usual routine, Mom got some bills in the mail in regards to the family inn, but I guess she'll take care of them when she gets back. Me and Pikachu had some more snacks from our pantry as usual, and then loafed around. Then, it really hit me as I laid on the couch.

"Hey Pikachu," I began. "Leaf foretold that the competition would get tough..."

"Pika..." he sighed, rolling over onto his back in thought.

"And... Considering the way they were acting during lunch today when Misty began the argument... Well, who knows what'll happen in P. E. tomorrow?! It'll be chaos!"

"Pi-Pika!"

"Agh! Why me, why me?!" I cried, running my un-gloved hands in fury through my hair. I am just so... Bewildered by it all, whatever, I'll just lay on it, I can't help but groan at this prospect, so I just stared at the ceiling till I became bothered to prepare my one binder for math and to get dinner prepared.

That evening however as I looked through the fridge and pantry I became aware of how much material we actually still have. "Oh man...! We're nearly out meat and Pokemon food!"

"Pi-Pika?!"

I looked at our budget for the month. "Nuts, we're gonna have to... Ugh, cut back I suppose on some of our meals buddy, if anything just to have enough money for everything else. D-don't worry, I'll be fine, I have the girls for free food, right?"

Man I sound like an optimist, but who knows if they'll actually help us?

The next day I begrudgingly did my routine and had to eat just an apple for breakfast 'cause apparently we're also low on cereal! And I hate shopping… And my stomach won't stop grumbling too…

We got to school with some time to spare and I decided to pay the cafeteria just a quick little peek before math could begin. I reached the corner where us students normally would enter but just as I was turning towards the aisles of delicious pastries and…-?!

"Ahhhh!" I cried, what the heck?! Something fast just ran into me, and I ended up landing in a small puddle of water, must've been the result of some incident with the water fountain I no doubt want to know about. But wait who hit me?!

"Sorry, sorry! I am so sorry!" Oh, it's her… Bianca. "Oh hello there Ash, didn't realize it was you for a moment," she said, taking in a moment to realize what she did.

"Urgh… Good to see you too Bianca…" I groaned as I stood up, Pikachu this time had not been so fortunate and had landed in the puddle beside me – speaking of which how is she always knocking me into puddles?! Surely coincidence right?

"Anyways Ash dear," she bubbled on, winking. Darn it she's cute doing it too… "I need to be going, class for me is on the other side of the campus so bye-ee!"

And with that, just as soon and she showed she disappeared once again. "Boy Pikachu," I said, as I wiped the excess water off of him. "That Bianca knows how to leave a mess that's for sure."

"Pi-Pika…" he grumbled. "Ah well" I thought, let's just grab some eats and get going to… Math.

"Alright, you have your Pokeblock's, and I have my lemon cakes. Let's go!" I said, we had finished paying for the food and now had to get to class. We arrived and went to sit at our desk and... Oh yeah, Ursula sits with us, of course. Well I suppose it wouldn't hurt to at least be nice to her right?

"Morning," I said as I sat across from her, our teacher Ms. Lorelei has us sit in groups of four; our other group mates are Conway – perfection... Ugh. – and some other girl I don't know the name of, she was real quiet last time so I don't know.

"Morning," Ursula replied, eying us out of the corner of her eyes. We still had a few minutes till class officially got underway so I took the packs of Pokeblock and lemon cake I had bought and layed it out for Pikachu, to which he gladly began devouring down. I then began munching on the lemon cakes, man they're good! Sure, the sugar's not good for my teeth but...

"Must you two be so noisy?" Ursula quickly snapped.

"What?" I mumbled, my mouth full of food, wow that sounds attractive. "We're hungry, both me and him."

"Pikachu, Pik!" he grumbled back.

"You got that right buddy," I gulped, swallowing down the last crumbs. "Anyways Ursula surely your I would enjoy a morning snack too right?"

Ursula frowned at first, but then breathed a sigh. "Well, I suppose one of my Pokémon could use a snack."

She stood up and pulled out a Pokeball and released out a Gabite. "Ga... BITE!" It called upon exiting its Pokeball.

"Oh wow! I didn't know you had a Gabite!" I guzzled, standing up, wanting more than anything to pet it.

"Woah! Who said you could pet her?" Ursula retaliated, holding what I'm now guessing is her prized Pokémon.

"Sorry!" I said, reeling back. "It's just that I think it's so cool that you got a Gabite. See back at Professor Oak's lab is my Gible, and I think that's pretty cool that you and I have a member from the Gible evolutionary sets."

At this point whilst I was chatting away Conway decided to enter. "Heh heh, glad you took notice of Gible's evolutionary sets, Ash..."

"Gaah! When did you get here?!"

"Just now Ash, Ursula," he greeted. "Anyways, Gible's a rare Pokémon, you two should consider yourselves lucky to have such Pokémon as rare as them," his eyes then flashed behind those glasses of him as he chuckled. "I dare say, it might be fate for the both of you to have those Pokémon, a rather odd connection wouldn't you say?"

I was a bit confused by what Conway had to say, but when I looked at her Ursula's face suddenly went red as she processed what Conway had just said.

"I-I, well...! Um!" she stuttered, "t-that's just coincidence right?! Nothing to say there, I mean it's not like me and him having the same Pokémon could necessarily equate to us being a thing and...!" I guess she figured out what she was saying because she snapped her hands to her mouth. She then turned away and went back to feeding Gabite, while I was left bemused by what happened, with Pikachu merely groaning at what happened.

Y'know, she did kinda look cute with that that blush on her face, she went redder than that under blouse of hers which is like some pale red and... Oh what am I saying?!

Math class with Ms. Lorelei went as usual, and luckily we didn't have to do any group thingy-mc-boppers otherwise my creation of the already awkward tension would've gotten the best of things. Anyways time for P. E. class, time to get to some exercise in, and hopefully not a cat fight...

Today in that class was about as boring as usual, typical back and forth stuff from one end of the gym to another. But during all that, the girls, my harem ones I mean - why the heck am I even acknowledging that I have a harem, if this is a dream I need a psychiatrist... - were staring at me, why... Do I feel like they're trying to check me out...?

Our instructor Ms. Skyla had us test out our various abilities, like reaching our hands behind our back, hand reaches with one leg out, those sort of things, and we had to get partnered up, and with Ms. Skyla it didn't matter if you got paired with a guy or girl...

All my male friends got taken, and well, you know what happened. All seven girls from my harem came up to me, asked if I was free, realized they were all there, and now they're staring daggers at each other!

"Back off Misty!"

"No, you back off! I saw him first!"

"Puh-LEASE! I..."

"Come on! No fair!"

"Oh dear," I groaned. "Um, girls?"

"Yeah?!" they all shouted. Oh jeez I'm dying on the inside...

"Um... Hey, there are eight of us right? And there are like sixteen things we need to check off so why not we do it in rotation and you all get to work with me two times huh?" Please, PLEASE let that work Arceus… They're not that desperate for my attention are they...?

"Fine, what a kid though suggesting we work together," sighed Iris. All the other girls looked at each other and agreed to my suggestion. Though they all were looking at me out of the corners of their eyes, harem's are so tough to contend with... Pikachu just sighed and went off to be with my "servants' " Pokémon.

I guess there must've been a bit of a fight over working with me first, because eventually it was Misty who joined me first for pull ups, and being the guy I was, I said "ladies first, so it's you."

"Why thank you, glad to know somebody is aware of who's the fittest of the both of us," she scoffed.

"Is that a challenge?" I smirked back, she's pulling out all the stops I tell you.

"You bet I can out do you Ash! Just you watch," she said, ending it off with a wink, and gosh that smile of confidence (or is it arrogance I can't tell) speaks for itself. She walked up to the vertical pole in one of the corners of the gym, and hopped onto it. "One... Two... Three..." she grunted as I counted. In the end she did about nearly eleven pull ups, well, ten and a half really, she was tired out by past ten, and is currently on the floor panting from how much her arms are killing her at the moment.

"Woah, you know how to work yourself out," I smiled, placing a hand of sympathy and congratulations on her back. I guess you could say I was lucky she didn't take it the wrong way, because she stood up and told me it was my turn. Had I angered her with that touch, I could've been in for some pain...

I did twelve pull ups before I gave up, and man my arms hurt now. Now, don't me wrong, I would have loved for this class to go without any difficulties but as I was checking my paper over Misty moved her hand over my paper and... We touched hands, I guess she was going for the pencil I had.

"Hey!" she shouted, her face as red as a beet's. "Just hand the stupid pencil over!"

"Well excuse me but I was writing things down!" I retaliated.

"Who cares?! Give it to me!"

"Ugh...! Fine, here," I groaned, handing my pencil to her. And of all times one of the girls in our class, a purple haired baseball lover by the name of Casey was nearby and made this remark...

"Ha! I once heard from Nurse Joy that often you hurt the one you love!" she smiled cheekily, I had heard about her, always willing to pull a cheeky remark at any chance that one... Well, and you can guess Misty's reaction.

"Me and him?! Um, I..." she was glancing around nervously, fidgeting all the while, she then turned around, and based on the way her arm structure is looking she's holding onto the hand that I touched... I looked at my hand and went red myself, I touched another girls' hand, wow, and it was warm too and her skin felt nice... CURSE THIS ALL ARCEUS, WHY DOES TOUCHING A FEMALE HAND HAVE TO FEEL SO NICE!?

After that awkward exchange, it was time for the second girl, who was... Iris, oh boy... "Hey," I greeted. "So, any particular exercise you want to practice on?"

"How I wish climbing tree's was one," she laughed, I chuckled at that; she's got a point too; tree climbing sounds much more fun. "The closest thing I could think of to climbing tree's would be pull up's but you already did that with Ms. Heated-Ginger... How about something simple like shoulder stretches?"

And so we did that, and for me, this is weird, with my left hand I can reach down my back and touch my other hand, but I can't say the same for my right side... I dare say with Iris' attempt it was pretty weird, that hair of hers is thick like a bush and it made trying to see if her hands were touching difficult! "Oh come on!" she groaned, "what a kid! Can't even tell if I'm doing it right..."

Why I oughta...! She's the one who wanted to do these! Whatever, she got them over with, and apparently, Iris is the perfect girl! She could do it – albeit with a little strain on her left – with both hands too easily!

With her confidence stepped up she went to go join Ursula for the next round. My next partner was Bianca – who was not running at me for once. Good thing too, because coach had set up a water tank for use if we ever got thirsty and the fountains were occupied we could drink from there, and I swear if Bianca was running at me I'd end up with that whole tank all over me because it was behind where we were working...

"Hi-iii!" she squeaked. I was going to respond but she cut me off. "I know what we should do! Push upsss!"

I sweat-dropped, Bianca's got real enthusiasm. "Well alright then, ladies first," I motioned, sweat dropping all the while.

"...Am I doing this right?" she asked at last, I looked, she wasn't quite doing it right to be honest, she was on her knee's for one thing, but her arms were in the right place. She's more like doing those typical 'girl push ups' which coach is discouraging us from doing.

"Well, ergh... Not quite," I said, I got down and demonstrated how to do one. "See? Just move your hips up and you'll have it right."

At this point a rather awkward look came across Bianca's face. "That's what she would say," she snickered. Wait... What? I'm dense, so I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that...

Bianca got as far as ten push-ups, but to hear her talk for her, this was like winning the Nobel Peace Prize. As for me, I got as far as fifteen, although... "Come on!" Bianca shouted as I reached fourteen, panting. "You can do so much more! Look at you with that buff bod of yours!"

"Bianca, please," I gasped, as I finish my fifteenth one. "Y-you're embarrassing me, and I'm... Tired, ugh..." I was feeling pained alright, no doubt.

We finished writing down our push-ups, Bianca bubbling about it the whole time about how normally she fell onto her chest every time she use to attempt push-ups till now, she's got a lot of things to talk about lemme tell you. Who's next dare I ask...? And it's Dawn.

"Hi there!" she greeted, holding a hand out to greet me, I decided to indulge her and gave her a high-five. "Awesome, since you were just bossed around by those three, how about you suggest what we do next?"

"Oh wow, thanks. Um... How about this 'back-saver sit and reach'?" If anything, it'll be easier on my back.

"Okay! I believe the equipment is just over there," she pointed to the other side of the gym where coach had set up these box things with rulers on them. As we walked over there, Dawn wanted to strike up a conversation.

"I'm not sure why," she began. "But for some reason I feel like I've got a real long arm length."

"I raised an eyebrow at this. "What? What makes you say that?"

"Well you see..." Dawn said, fidgeting. "One of my Pokémon partners is a Mamoswine, and it tends to easily get out of hand. I always say there's no need to worry with taking care of it, but Mamoswine can be a real pain, see as a Swinub it really loved my poffins and that's still true to this day. But... Mamoswine's just so energetic, and stubborn...! And when it charges at me when I have poffins ready I have to hold my hands out frantically so as not to get hurt. I guess that's why I think my arms are so long," she ended, sticking her tongue out whilst sweat dropping.

I also sweat-dropped, "erm... Wow, talk about an issue... My Charizard use to not listen to me, but now we're as thick as well... Hariyama's Thick Fat?" I had no other analogies to think of.

Dawn busted out a bright smile and giggled at that, "nice joke, Ash! You're funny."

"Thanks," I smirked, not too many people make nice comments about my jokes. As a kid in elementary school, Mom use to say I was the school's jokester, and often got into trouble as a result... Ergh.

We did what we had to do at the back-saver, I was at eight inches, her measurement was twelve, pretty standard stuff apparently according to coach.

After that, Dawn left to do the other last few tasks and the next up was Ursula. "Well..." she grunted as she approached. "This'll be the first time I've had to be paired with a boy for this sort of task."

I couldn't help but smile awkwardly and scratched the back of my head, "believe me, this is also my first time with all this. Especially having to change partners each time and all that."

"Oh!" she snickered. "Not use to being the center of attention are we?" she laughed, but then realized she was partaking in said 'attention giving,' so Ursula went red in the face and stared in the other direction.

"Uh... Heh heh... Well, might as well get started shall we?" I suggested. "I still need to do the flex-arm hang. Just lemme get a drink of water."

I hurried over to the tank to quench my thirst, just as Ursula turned around to talk to me. After those push-ups, the walking around the gym, and exhausting my throat out with conversations, I need this drink. Remember how I mentioned Casey? Well, to my chagrin, there she was, with Leaf. Oh no...

"Er... Hi, ladies," I awkwardly greeted.

"Well, well, Mr. Harem over here paying some other girls some attention huh? I'd be careful if I were you returning back," laughed Casey, she then continued. "Don't worry, Leaf here has explained... Everything to me, after I saw your whole interaction with Misty. Gotta say, didn't know the Pallet Town Elementary baseball pitcher would be such a catch among the girls."

Leaf snickered at this, this ticked me off. "Oh come on! I have enough of a issue dealing with them as it is, Leaf! I never, ever could've even thought of ending up with a harem. And for your information Casey, after I became a Pokémon trainer I quit being the pitcher of the team." Back before I was ten, when most, if not all kids can get their Pokémon licenses, I was actually a team member for the school's baseball team, I'm surprised anyone still remembers that.

Leaf rolled her eyes. "Remember Ash," she cautioned. "There's a reason this is all happening, the challenge of having these girls after you could for all we know be intended to help you in the long run somehow."

"Yes, yes," I groaned. "Anyways, I'm thirsty." I drank my water fast, and hurried back to the girls, startled by the whole interaction we had just had, I only can hope no one gets jealous by the fact that Leaf and Casey were there...

"What took you?" Ursula confronted me. "The bar is ready, so hurry up!" Whew, thank goodness she didn't notice the other two.

Because I am who I am, Ursula went first on the bar, she lasted holding on for ten seconds. Apparently Dawn had gone on the bar before, because when I told her her time stamp, she began to gloat how she out did Dawn by one whole second... What is it between those two? Next was my turn, and I lasted fifteen seconds, go me!

"Not bad Ash," Ursula commented as we walked back. "You hung in there a lot longer than what I would've expected."

"Ha! Thanks, you did well too, you have good arm strength," I laughed.

My next partner was May, although everything didn't appear to be too well...

"Hey, Ash..." she frowned, looking at me straight in the eyes, she's not too happy... "What is it, huh? Do you not enjoy my company?"

"W-what are you talking about?"

"I saw the way you were talking to that purple haired girl, and that fortune-telling Leaf, are you a double timer or something?!"

"N-no!" I countered. "They just happened to be there and I thirsty, honest!" I was alarmed, I was having hold my hands out to defend myself.

"Hmm..."

"So... My arms are pretty tired... Uh..." I looked my sheet over, there were still a few more things to take care of, including a timed mile run, though knowing the P. E. system here, we get to do that on Monday on the field. But out of all the remaining exercises, the truck lift would give my arms a rest.

"Done the trunk lift yet May?"

"Um, no. You want to do that one..?"

"Yeah," I replied, May seems... Hesitant about the trunk lift oddly. I wonder why...

We pulled out a mat, and I got a ruler to do the measuring with. All the while May was getting more, and more nervous, but as she got onto her stomach to lie down, I realized why.

I never noticed at first, as Brock would say my romance and sexuality meter is as thick as a brick wall, let alone my empathy/sensitivity sensors, but now I realized that May's got a huge chest! Like, they're big, and when she attempted to lie flat she couldn't quite do one-hundred percent... It left her shoulders heightened a little. And if you could see it, May probably is billowing embarrassment smoke out her ears, and her face was as red as Ursula's earlier today! Plus she looked really uncomfortable with her chest all squeezed like that.

"Um... N-never mind," I soothed; oh Arceus why...? "We can still check your trunk lift even if you aren't... all the way down..."

"U-uh... Y-yeah! Totally…" May stammered. Man... Just looking at her pressed chest is already too much for me...

I placed the ruler down and May did the whole... Snake thing? I really don't know how to else to word it, whatever May's chin reached the eleven inches which I marked down. I then did the trunk lift and I also got eleven on the lift. To say May was a little uncomfortable still after the whole... Chest thing would be to say Seviper makes sense to battle Forretress without Flamethrower. She's still peeved about it! Don't hurt me please...

With them all satisfied by now, the last person I needed to work with to complete the circle was Serena. But I needed a break so I began talking to Pikachu.

"... Man I tell you, these girls are hard to please... Some more than others, Bianca's a handful; Misty and Iris are both full of themselves, and May got so jealous because I was talking to Leaf and Casey..."

"Pika pipi, Pikapi..."

"And still there's the issue of eating this weekend and I have-"

"Hi Ash!" Gah! It was just Serena, she had come up behind me and I wasn't paying attention, certainly took me by surprise! "Um... Feeling rested yet?"

"Q-quite," I stammered, still taken aback by Serena's voice cutting through my thoughts.

"I-I'm sorry, I must've startled you when I did that, coming up behind you and then yelling 'Hi Ash' like that," she sighed, clearly upset at having unsettled me.

"Hey, listen, don't worry about it," I comforted. "Let's just get working huh? So, what've you not done yet?"

"Well... Um, I have yet to do those curl ups..."

"Ah, that's when I have to stand on your feet, while you use your torso strength to lift yourself up."

"Oh... Yeah, great..."

I had to grab another mat since Dawn was now using it for her trunk lift. "So, you or me first?" I offered.

"How about you Ash? I'm a little rusty on how to do these things."

Deciding to humor Serena – I seriously doubt one can forget how to do these things – I got down on my back and told to stand on my feet while I had to go up and down. Personally I find this one painful, hurts my rear... Anyhow with Serena as my counter I got up to seventeen curl-ups. "Gah...! Thanks," I gasped, gosh this was killer, I need a moment. I grabbed the bottom of my shirt to wash the sweat off of my face, only to well... Remember that I'm a dude.

"Eek!" Serena nearly yelled, facing away from me, face color, pure crimson. I guess her little shriek caught the others' attention cause as I stood up, they all were looking, and then covering their eyes.

"What?" I asked, bemused. "Never seen a guy's stomach before?"

"Ash you idiot!" they shrieked, minus Bianca who just stared, and Serena who was staying silent. Misty being the loudest, "of course we haven't!" All of their faces look like a sea of Charizard tails, I tell you...

"I mean Misty," I went on, "you have no trouble walking around school with your mid-drift showing, if anything you're the one who should watch it."

At this, the ginger went red and angrily slapped my face! Ow... Guess I deserved that. Geez, given her violent record from what I've heard she's more of a boy than a girl...

"Eh... Heh heh... Hey Serena?"

"Huh? Oh, yes Ash?"

"Your turn you know?"

"Oh, right."

Serena sighed as she got into position, and got a little flustered knowing I was above her, as he got red when she looked up to see me looking down at her, not that I was doing it with a perverted intention! She tried to do some curl ups, but at five she was running out of steam...

"I... I can't do it!" she wailed, falling back.

"Come on!" I said back, "two days ago on Monday you yourself told me that even though you hate it, you still can endure those Rhyhorn race practices your Mom puts you through. If you can do that, then you can totally muster the will to keeping going. Never give up till the end, Serena! Let's see some guts huh?!"

Her eyes shot at this, a smirk crossed her face. She found strength and with a fighting will she did another six, although on the eleventh she flailed at the end, and fell, gasping. "Please... No more," she pleaded. "Ugh...!"

"Haha! You're strong y'know? You did great," I stated, stepping off her feet and holding out a hand. She took it, and I helped her up right.

Note, never do that in front of other girls, cause I faintly heard this: "He held her hand!"

"No fair, I want to be helped up by him!"

"Maybe I should've laid there on Wednesday and had him help me up..."

Oh boy... What have I spawned, sweat dropping all the while as I jotted our scores down. Suddenly, "help!"

I whipped around and saw Dawn on the floor, looking as if she tripped. May was frantic, "Dawn? Dawn?! What happened? Are you alright?"

"Mmm mm, yeah... No need to worry," she said. "I must've slipped, that's all. Could... Someone help me up?"

I hurried over, "here, I'll help you."

"Oh puh-lease," groaned Ursula, "she's feigning for your attention Ash!"

This didn't seem to deter Dawn as I basically fell into her trap and helped her up. She clasped my hand with her other one gratefully. "Thanks."

I just smiled as Ms. Skyla called us all over...

AGAIN, LUNCH! Beautiful, only problem being I have less food on my tray this time around. "That's not like you Ashy-boy," Gary commented at the lunch line. "Normally you'd have enough food to feed a Munchlax."

I nervously chuckled, "Yeah... About that, the problem is, is that I have to conserve money for a bit, so I'm going to have to go cold-Turkey for a bit."

We payed, Gary went off to be with the guys while I had gone off with the girls, given that they were dragging me anyways... At first some of them didn't notice, but May did. "Your poor soul!" she exclaimed, noticing my expression after I had finished. She pulled out her backpack and heaved this heavy chip bag, looks good, "Thought I needed this today... Haha, but you need it more than I do it seems."

"Thanks May!" I cheered. "Hey... Um, I need to tell you guys something..." I then explained about my budget to her and Dawn. "So uh... Dawn..."

"Yes?" the bluenette said, perking up, I think she's getting where I'm going with this, her smile tells it all.

"Um, can I maybe cash in on that 'friend' discount at your café tomorrow during lunch?"

"Of course!" she squealed, "we open at around nine o' clock, and close at around three so it's no problem at all! But wait, what about your dinner tonight and breakfast?"

Well, at that, ALL the girls turned around and instantly started offering me dinner at their places tonight. "Ladies! Ladies, please! I'm quite fine for breakfast, AND dinner! It's just that the weekends going to be a little rough and..."

Well, the debate lasted for a while after that. I had rather hoped that would go more diplomatically but alas... For my dinner tomorrow Bianca ended up getting dibs on bringing me out, Serena would help a little by providing more food spares after cooking class today, and the rest would 'take care of me' on Sunday. If Mom were here... Oh Arceus...

Thankfully I was saved by the Bronzong as everyone had to leave to go do things during lunch after they had finished. Welp, time to go lay in the grass for a bit before cooking class.