Bonjour! I totally did not think this would be up today but alas, I finished typing, over a period of a week. -.- Yeah, it was long.

Anyways, Enjoy the chapter, see you at the end ;)

DISCLAIMER! I do not own Pokémon!

Enjoy :D!

Thursday, September 6th

Dear Diary,

Last night, I didn't get much sleep. I was nervous about my appeals performance today, worried that it wasn't spectacular enough.

I guess I ended up waking Piplup, because he followed me onto my bedroom balcony.

"Pip lup?" he asked with a yawn and rubbing his left eye.

I turned around. "Sorry Piplup, did I wake you?"

"Piplup."

"Sorry."

"Piplup pip?"

"Nothing, I'm just worried about my appeal presentation tomorrow. You were there when I was practicing. Was I any good?"

"Pip pip lup," he said nodding his head.

I smiled at my Pokémon. "Thanks Piplup. I can always count on you when I need a pep talk," I said kneeling down to pat his head. "Let's try to go back to sleep alright?"

"Pip!" he nodded his head and proceeded to enter the room, I followed shortly behind him.

The next morning, I took the bus to school. I sat in a two seater closer towards the front of the bus. Soon after, Barry, Ash and May's stop came. Barry sat next to me while Ash and May went to go sit somewhere in the back.

"Did you end up finishing your science homework?" I asked Barry.

"Of course!"

I lay my head on the window.

"Tired?"

"Oh definitely," I practically mumbled.

He tapped my shoulder, "go to sleep, I'll wake you when we get there."

"Aw, thanks." I gave him a hug before taking my nap on his shoulder.

*&^%$

Barry kept his word and woke me up when we got to school.

"Have a nice nap?" he asked while we walked off the bus.

"Should have been longer," I replied.

"Oh you," he said rolling his eyes.

We didn't meet up with May and Ash after the ride. I was fine with it, I wanted to keep my distance from Ash anyways.

Barry and I walked to our locker as soon as we got into the school. Zoey then came over to us.

"Hey Barry, I'm going to borrow Dawn for a sec. K thanks." She then pulled me by my arm to the other side of the hall.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Dude, what's up with you and Barry?"

"Uh… nothing?"

"What happened to Ash?"

I glared at her. "There was never anything between Ash and I."

"Well clearly something is going on because you guys aren't together."

"Yeah, it's 'cause I'm keeping my distance from him."

"Say what?"

"I just don't want to get involved. Dude, he did drugs and all that crap."

"Did, people change."

"Still keeping my distance."

Zoey rolled her eyes. "Uh, Zoe, it's been two freaking days. I don't know him, and what I found out yesterday proves it. And I didn't like what I found out, therefore, distance."

I started to walk away from her, my back to my locker.

She smirked at me. "You are ridiculous!" She called out.

"I'll see you in class!" I called back, smirking as well.

Zoey chuckled as she shook her head.

I turned around straight into Gary. Unfortunately, I fell back. "Oww"

"Crap! Sorry Dawn, I wasn't looking where I was going."

"Its fine, neither was I." He extended his hand to help me up. "Thanks."

"No problem, see you later." He then continued to head wherever he was heading.

I got back to my locker and Barry was there reading over an assignment.

"I'm back."

"Oh, hi again, what did Zoey want?"

"She asked why I wasn't with Ash," I rolled my eyes.

"Does she know that you guys aren't dating?" he asked still concentrating on his assignment.

"Everyone knows that we aren't dating. I even told her that I'm keeping my distance. She doesn't get it, thinks I should move on and just get over it."

"Well Dawn, I'm not going to tell you how to choose your friends. I don't trust him like I used to, doesn't mean you need to take my side," he said putting away the assignment and taking out books.

"I don't know what side to be on, I wasn't there."

"Exactly," he said closing his locker, and then he walked away from me to get to class.

He was right. I wasn't there. But still, I don't like people like that. I sighed and leaned against my locker. "We'll see," I mumbled. I still decided to keep my distance.

When the bell rang, I took out my pokéball and stared at it. This is it.

I put away my bag and headed towards the auditorium pokéball in hand.

Zoey was already in class when I got there.

"You ready?" I asked as I approached her.

"Yeah, you?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

The teacher walked into class.

"Okay everyone, take a seat and relax. I have randomly selected who goes when and Claire Reed, you're up first."

Everyone took their seat as Claire got on stage. Zoey and I took seats away from everyone else and instead of paying attention, decided to talk to each other.

"It's still in your head to keep away from Ash?" she started.

"Yes! At least for today, besides, so far it's been easy, he hasn't approached me once."

"I doubt it'll be like that for much longer."

"Why not?"

"I don't know Dawn, he seems into you."

"Must I stress the part where it has been three days?"

"Dude, I'm not saying that he's in love with you. I'm just saying that he's probably into you. That isn't even like yet."

"After yesterday, I doubt it."

"You think that after one little tiny "fight" it'll just go away? I don't think he's that immature."

"You never know," I retorted.

"In other news, are you going to Drew's party?"

"Yeah I am, are you?"

"Yup, I cannot wait-"

"Zoey Jennings?" the teacher called out.

"Yeah?" Zoey answered.

"You're up!"

"Good luck!" I told her.

"Thanks," she said as she got up.

Zoey walked up to the stage and waited for the teachers signal.

"Whenever you're ready!" the teacher called out.

"Toxicroak, curtain!" Toxicroak came out of his ball capsule, lightning bolts surrounding him.

"Use poison sting! Aim above!" Zoey commanded pointing to the ceiling.

Toxicroak did as it was told and shot the purple spikes into the air.

"Quickly, surround the poison stings with a sludge bomb!"

Toxicroak threw his arms up over his head, and then brought them down with force as a sludge bomb came out of his mouth and rapidly reached, and surrounded, all of his poison stings.

I was impressed with how powerful his last attack was.

As the big mud ball came down, Zoey called out another attack.

"Now for the finish Toxicroak, use poison jab!"

The spike on Toxicroak's right hand glowed purple as he launched himself toward the falling mud ball and jabbed it right in the middle so that the mud ball fall down without hitting the poison pokémon. But what did surround him, were the purple and pink sparkles that were in the center of the ball of mud.

Toxicroak then landed in a kneeling position on the ground while the rest of the sparkles fell atop him.

The class clapped. Zoey bowed, called Toxicroak back to his pokéball, and then exited the stage.

"Not bad Ms. Jennings, not bad. 8.5/10," she stated.

"That's 85%! That's great Zoey!" I said as she came back to her seat.

She sat with her eyes closed and her arms crossed, "eh, should have been better."

"Your appeal was very pretty, she's just a hard marker," I tried to reason.

"… maybe."

We continued to watch the rest of the appeals till my name was called.

"Dawn Berlitz?"

"Right here!" I got up from my seat and walked up to the stage. When I got to center stage, I quickly put the pokéball into the ball capsule and seal it.

"Let's do this," I whispered to the pokéball. "Buizel, spotlight!"

A bunch of bubbles appeared then they circled tightly together till the popped which revealed a determined Buizel.

"Buizel, use whirlpool!" I commanded. At that, a huge whirlpool was formed, just like they practiced.

"Throw it up in the air, then surround the whirlpool with a swift attack!"

Buizel did what it was told as gold stars wrapped around the swirling water above.

"Now use aquajet to get inside the whirlpool!"

"Bui bui!" Water engulfed the pokémon as it got inside the whirlpool.

"Great job! Now for the finale, razor wind!"

With its tail, it produces strong razor winds that cut through the water and swift attack which produced blue and yellow sparkles. Buizel landed on the ground and crossed his arms as sparkles fell around him.

"Good job Buizel!" I said as I returned it to its pokéball.

"Great job Ms. Berlitz, you're the first one to use all of the pokémon's attacks, 9/10"

A sigh of relief.

It was over, I did fantastic.

I went to go back to my seat. "That Buizel is a strong swimmer. It handled the whirlpool just like that, and then launched an attack. That's one powerful Buizel."

"I totally agree. I was very lucky to have chosen him."

We continued to watch the rest of the appeals and most in awe. There were a lot of tough trainers in our class, it was intimidating.

When the bell rang, Zoey and I walked out of class together. "Are you sure you're still continuing with the whole "distance-from-Ash" thing?"

I glared at her. "Yes Zoey, I'm still keeping my distance from Ash. You know, I should really ask you why you care so much about how I'm going about this, so out with it."

Zoey stopped walking when she reached her locker. "It just seems like he's into you, and he won't wait around forever. And I'd think you'd like him, but I have a feeling you'd just figure that out too late." She fiddled with her lock until she got it open, then she took out her cell phone and closed her locker.

"Zoey, I don't like guys like that," I said simply.

"Correction," Zoey said while checking her phone for messages, "you don't like the guy he was."

"It's the type of guy he could go back to; I don't want to be involved."

She shook her head, "he's been sober for a year."

"How do you know?"

"I'm his neighbour."

She threw me off, "wait, then why aren't you on the bus with us?"

"I get a lift."

I shook my head realizing the topic was changing. "Regardless! You still wouldn't know! How could you know?"

"We do talk Dawn, he told me about that phase of his life and he really seems to regret it."

"Whatever, there must be a reason why he did it."

Zoey just shrugged, "it never came up."

"See! He could totally go back!"

"Dawn! Will you let it go? You hold these stupid grudges, and you weren't even there."

"The way I see it, he didn't want me to know, keeping secrets isn't the best thing, and maybe I would have acted differently had he told me."

"Maybe because he wanted to start anew, and since you were new, if he didn't tell you you wouldn't hold it against him."

"But I found out Zoey. Regardless, at some point it would have come out, I rather hear it now than later."

Her phone vibrated, and she checked it.

"I have to go meet Misty," she turned back to me, "look, all I'm saying is that you should give it a rest. You didn't even know him when it happened. Move on Dawn, think about it."

She then left and I was left alone to my thoughts for the five minutes of recess that remained.

I'm not stupid. I understand her point, but it just doesn't seem right to me; to just forget. My thoughts wondered till the bell rang so I went to go meet up with Barry to go to English together.

"I feel like I made your decision for you!" Barry said when he saw me walk in his direction. When I got closer he elaborated, "I was with Misty when Zoey came and started going off about you and the whole Ash situation. When I told her that I told you about Ash, she accused me of putting these thoughts in your head. Now, I'm starting to believe her."

I grabbed his shoulders. "Barry! Relax, you didn't sway my opinion. Why is everyone going off about this Ash thing? It's getting annoying."

He sighed, "I guess they just thought you guys looked possible."

I shrugged. "We should go before the bell rings."

He nodded as we left for class.

Boy did we get our share of homework. The teacher gave us our first essay of the year: 2000 word essay about the three legendary birds of Kanto. Did you know that there is only so much you could write about the legendries? Did you know that it does not even come close to 2000! Challenge us she did.

As soon as we got out of class my name was called. Unfortunately, it was Ash's voice that carried across the hall. I kept walking trying to avoid him.

He caught up to me. "How was class?" crap.

"Fine." Simple.

"You okay?" concern shaped his face.

"Fine," I repeated. I walked faster.

Barry followed swiftly. "Hey Ash, I need to talk with Dawn privately, she'll be with you later," I heard him tell Ash.

I looked back, Ash just shrugged and walked past us to his locker.

"Thanks," I whispered to Barry. He didn't respond, he just continued to walk side me till we reached our lockers. That's when Zoey came by. Sure she was great and all, but right now, all she was was annoying.

"Hey Barry, hey Dawn," she started, "Dawn, want to have lunch together, like us two?"

I raised my eyebrow, "um sure?"

We decided to eat at the bleachers, to my relief, Ash was nowhere to be found. Zoey and I just spoke casually about school and home life, and then she started talking about Gary.

"Yeah he's great and all. Too bad he isn't mine."

"Maybe you just aren't forward enough," I countered.

She almost choked on the grape she just put in her mouth. "Forward? The guy seems to only have eyes for Misty." A pause. "That's actually why I decided not to be with them this lunch. They're starting to bother me. And, since you wanted to avoid Ash, I knew that you'd be just as fine being away from the gang as I am."

"I am, trust me I am. But I don't understand, Gary looks totally into you-"

"Unless Misty's around," she interrupted.

I thought about it and she was right. Gary only seemed interested in Zoey is Misty wasn't around, as if he were cheating on Misty or something.

"Maybe he's just confused?"

"Maybe I should go lesbian. Girls seem easier to understand. What do you think?"

"I think girls are worse, but Gary seems equally as complicating, so I'm fine with whatever you choose."

Zoey let out a short laugh.

When the bell rang it was time for physical science. We did a lab on circuits and I have a lab report due next class.

When class was dismissed for the last recess of the day, Drew caught up to me. "Any news about the party yet, can you come?"

"Yes, yes, I could come and stay the night."

"That's great," he said enthusiastically. He then asked me how my previous class went and we got to my locker. As Drew left to go back to his locker, Barry came complaining about his previous class.

Have I ever said how entertaining it was to hear Barry get mad? He gets so animated, it's honestly hilarious.

May then came to see us.

"Hey Dawn, where were you at lunch?"

"Oh, Zoey and I decided to have lunch outside," I said.

"Oh, well Ash was looking for you." Of course he was. I looked around feeling that he would be around.

"Oh, he won't be here, he has recess detention."

"Ah." This day could not have been better! Everything just worked out, I barely had to avoid him.

That was until the last two minutes of recess. "Dawn, could we talk?"

I was, metaphorically speaking, cornered. I turned around to face him. "Talk about what?" That came out really stingy, but I don't care.

He took my forearm and gently pulled me to the other side of the hallway. "Are you avoiding me?"

"Maybe…"

"Are you?"

"Yes, okay, I'm avoiding you!" I saw the look on his face; it was as if I slapped him. I continued regardless, "because I heard what you did two years ago, and I'm not okay with it."

He looked at me for a minute without saying anything, Just when he was about to say something, the bell rang. We both had gym.

"Let's ditch," he suggested.

"I'm not going to skip!" He was insane.

"I promise we won't get caught," he insisted.

I really didn't want to skip.

"How about this," I counter offered, "We'll go to class claiming we forgot our gym clothes so that we could talk."

He rolled his eyes, "Fine, I'll just go put my books away."

"I'm going to class," I said as I spun my heel around and headed towards the gym.

When I got there, I informed the teacher that I had forgotten my clothes and went to sit on the bench. Two minutes after, Ash did the same.

He sat next to me in silence, so I had to say something. "Well…?"

"Dawn, I don't understand why this is bothering you, it happened two years ago, and you weren't even here."

That couldn't sound more like Zoey.

"Yeah, but you could get back into it."

"Dawn, I've been sober for two years."

"Why?" I jumped right to it.

"We all have our problems."

"But why turn to that?"

The gym teacher blew the whistle to start the game of floor hockey.

"Honestly, I just fell into the hands of the wrong crowd."

"Then what got you out?"

"A friend overdosed, thankfully he was pumped in time, but it scared me so much that I wanted nothing to do with it anymore."

"Wow." Heavy stuff.

"Yeah, so trust me, I'm not going back."

I smiled, "I could trust that." I believed him. A scare like that could definitely pull someone out of it.

He smiled back at me. I was glad that was over with.

For the next hour we cheered on the team May and Drew were on.

That was pretty much my day. I'm glad Ash and I are good again, to tell you the truth, I kind of missed his presence.

Well, better start on that essay!

I'll write soon,

Dawn.

:D Thoughts?

This was honestly the longest chapter to write up, I was so stumped! But then I got awesome and worked it out ;)

Also, sorry for lack of updates once again! I got an e-reader for Christmas and it's beautiful, and the reason for my delays, there are just too many good books D:!
Also, I developed a new writing style, YAY :D. That'll be in my next story, details on profile! But like Too complicating, it won't be up until it is FINISHED. I regret putting up unfinished -in progress- stories! :(

Anyways.

Let me know what you think, there's a button for that at the bottom that reads "Review this chapter", If you click it and leave a review it'll make my day, AND leave a signed review for a cyber hug :D

Keep Reading & Review, Cyber hugs always given!
PorcelainDollxx