We're now at chapter three, and we're now back in Pallet town!

When darkness fell, the friends arrived back in Pallet. It looked very pretty in the snow. The houses' roofs were pure white, and children were in the gardens building snow Pokémon.

They approached Ash's house to find the front of decorated in brightly coloured Christmas lights.

"Here we are, guys," said Ash.

"Ooh, how lovely," squealed Dawn, looking at the lights. "Your Mom must really want the Christmas to be special."

"I'm sure it will be," smiled Brock.

"I know it will be," cried Ash happily. "This is going to be my best Christmas ever!"

Dawn and Brock looked at each other, still confused as to why Ash was in such high spirits. But they smiled and shrugged it off. Then together, they walked towards Ash's house and disappeared through the front door. They went together into the living room to find a tall Christmas tree decorated with lights, tinsel and small models of Pokémon. Pikachu was very astonished and pleased to see that on top of the tree was a model of a Pikachu wearing a Santa Claus outfit. "Pika!"

"Mom, we're here!" Ash called out. At that moment, Delia came fron the kitchen to the living room, followed by Misty and Tracey.

"Oh, Ash, you're here! Welcome home, honey!" Delia cried. Then she ran up to her son, threw her arms around him and smothered him with kisses, much to his embaressment. The others were unable to hide their grins.

When Delia finished turned mothering Ash, she turned to Brock and Dawn. "Hi, you two. Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, Mrs Ketchum," Dawn and Brock replied in unison.

"Hey, Ash," smiled Tracey. "Long time, no see, buddy."

"Good to see you, Tracey," Ash smiled back. He turned to Misty. "You too, old friend."

"Darn, and when I left you last, I thought I was finally free of you!" Misty joked, laughing heartily. Pikachu then jumped into her arms and cried out happily, glad to see Misty again. "Hi, Pikachu! How lovely to see you again."

"Aww, your more happy to see him than me?" Ash laughed.

"Now don't start arguing again like you did when we all travelled together," chuckled Brock, waving his finger. "It's Christmas; a time of peace and goodwill, not fights."

"Okay, Brock," Misty giggled. "It's so good to hear your advice again after all this time." Then she turned to Dawn. "Hello, who's this? A new companion of yours?"

"Misty, this is Dawn," said Ash. "Dawn, this is Misty, my first travelling compainion, who shared alot of arguements with me."

"Hello Misty," smiled Dawn.

Misty smiled back. "Hello Dawn. How do you like travelling with Ash? Does he still boast about how great he thinks he is?"

"Indeed he does."

"Some things never change!" The two girls shared a giggle. Ash fumed a little, but Tracey nudged him and whispered to him to calm down.

"So May departed from you then?" Misty asked.

"Yeah, but she and Max are coming to the party," replied Brock.

It was then when Ash realised that May wasn't there. He looked around, but she was nowhere in sight. "Hey Mom! Where's May? I thought you said in the letter she was coming."

"I did, but maybe she's just running a little late. I'm sure she'll come though."

"Yeah, like I say Ash," put in Dawn. "No need to worry!"

But secretly, Ash was worried. The entire reason he had come to the party was to be reunited with the girl he loved and had missed for so long. What if she didn't come? He would be more heartbroken than ever.

"Right, I'm going to cook the Christmas dinner," announced Delia. "Brock, would you mind giving me a hand, since you're such a wonderful cook?"

"No problem," replied Brock. "I'd be happy to help."

So Brock followed Delia into the kitchen, leaving Ash, Dawn, Misty, Tracey and Pikachu in the sitting room. Mr Mime then came in, carrying a tray of mince pies, which he offered to them. Misty, Tracey and Dawn happily accepted, but Ash was so lost in his worried thoughts of May not showing up, he didn't even notice the psychic-type standing by him,holding the tray for him to take a mince pie. After a minute of this, Mr Mime returned to the kitchen.

Just then, Pikachu spotted something on the floor and pointed at it with his paw. Misty picked it up. "It's a mistletoe!" She turned to Tracey and smiled. "Fancy making use of it?"

"Sure thing!"

Misty held the mistletoe above their heads and closed her eyes. Tracey gave her a quick peck on the cheek. Misty smiled, opened her eyes and passed the mistletoe to Dawn.

Dawn held the mistletoe above her head. "C'mon Ash. Let's make use of this mistletoe."

Ash was still worrying about May, when he heard these words and snapped out of his thoughts. He looked at Dawn holding the mistletoe, frowned and turned away in disgust. "No thank you, Dawn!"

"Hey, it's not that I have a crush on you," retorted Dawn huffily. "Even though Christmas is the season of love!"

"That's one thing you haven't learnt about Ash yet," remarked Misty, her hands on her hips. "He doesn't do the love thing! He doesn't know about feelings people share for one another. He doesn't understand and never will!"

That made Ash angry. He wanted to bellow at Misty about how right now he did have feelings for a girl, who he would fight to keep safe and would risk his life to save her, and how he had missed her so much since she had been gone.

But the thoughts of May just made him sad again about how he had been expecting her to be here, and that she hadn't arrived, and might not either. And besides, thought Ash, it's like Brock said; it's a time of peace and goodwill, not fights. Mom's working really hard to make this Christmas special. I'd better not ruin it by yelling at Misty. It's a time of love - only my love isn't here.

So Ash just sagged miserably onto the sofa. Pikachu sat next to him and looked up at him, worried for his master and best friend.

Outside, Team Rocket were gazing through the window.

"Should we go in now while the leader of the twerps is upset?" James suggested. "He mightn't even notice Pikachu is gone, seeing how sad he looks."

"No," exclaimed Jessie. "We'll wait until there's a big commotion. There's bound to be one. Then while everyone's distracted, we'll break in and steal Pikachu."

"Okay, but if dere's gonna be a commotion, it'd better better happen soon!" Meowth whined. "It's gettin' colder out here and I'm turnin' into a snowcat!"

So May isn't at the party as Ash was expecting. Where is she? Only I know - and you will find out in the next chapter!