TW: mentions of suicide attempt

The next day was sunny and warm. Route 39 smelled of fresh aroma and glittered with falling rose petals.

"Alright, Roselia, that's enough practice for the morning. Return."

Drew started walking back to the Pokemon Center to unwind a bit. He was stressed in part about the contest the next day and how this was his second-to-last chance to make it to the Grand Festival. But even more so, he was concerned about May. He hadn't seen her since their fight and couldn't begin to understand why she was so caught up on such crazy ideas.

He went to her room and knocked on the door. No answer.

"Come on, May. I know you're in there. You're mad at me, but we need to talk."

Nurse Joy was walking down the hall. "Oh, you mean the young lady with the green bandanna? She checked out early this morning. Said she was dropping out of the contest and going home."

What?! Is she out of her mind? I swear, that girl…

He headed back out and decided to keep walking around town to let some steam out.

How could she do that? Now she'll never make it to the Grand Festival. How could she be so stupid?

He walked by the gym and saw a bunch of angry evangelists yelling things at people, just like the previous day.

"Well that's just great." He turned the corner and walked by the lighthouse, and found even more of them. He was really getting pissed at the whole situation.

Finally he found a neighborhood where hopefully there would be none of them. It seemed quiet at first, when suddenly he was approached by one of the older men. It seemed that this man had actually followed him there. His sign said "Sinners go to hell."

"Excuse me! Don't you know it's a sin to color your hair?" the man barked.

"Excuse ME, genius, but I DON'T color my hair. Now get out of my way."

The man pointed his finger. "You're going to hell!"

"I swear, if you don't back away from me right now, I'll make you experience hell RIGHT HERE."

He shoved the man out of his way and ignored the subsequent yelling. As he was approaching a seemingly safe part of the neighborhood, a teenage boy about his same age came up to him. However, unlike the extremists in the town, this guy was not interested in yelling or casting judgment.

"Hey, you there. Have you heard?"

"Heard what? That a bunch of crazy people are invading Olivine? If so, then yes, I am fully informed."

"I'm talking about the end times. Someday He will come back, and all of this will be gone."

Drew groaned and started fuming.

Great. Another one. There's no escape ANYWHERE.

"Listen to me. You've got about five seconds to back away from me, or I'm calling the cops. Got it?"

The boy looked at him with sincere concern, but Drew couldn't see it. "Please, sir. The end times are coming. Fire will fall from the sky. We must prepare ourselves for battle."

Fed up, Drew spit in his eye and walked away.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

The sun was setting and Olivine was glowing orange and gold. Drew was standing on a bridge and looking out at the horizon. If he won tomorrow, he'd be heading out that way for the Grand Festival.

After some time he heard a friendly voice from behind him.

"You always were stubborn, Drew. It's good to see you haven't changed."

He turned around and saw the familiar face of an old friend and former coordinator. Her name was Lacey. In his early coordinating days, she was top coordinator and the toughest opponent he had ever known; even tougher than Solidad.

"Lace? What are you doing here? I haven't seen you in ages."

"Oh you know, just visiting Olivine… looking at some rocks… coming to my old friend's aid because he's clearly frustrated about something." She gave him a sassy smile.

Drew flipped his hair and looked back out at the sunset. "I'm fine, okay? Just stressed about the contest."

Lacey walked up and stood by him. "Drew, I can tell when you're lying to me. You know this."

He sighed heavily. "It's just… who invited the Billy Graham army to town, and why do they seem so out to get me?!"

Lacey looked behind her at the people in the distance, shouting and holding their signs. "Drew, you can't let those people get to you. They've been giving me a hard time too, so you don't need to feel victimized. But those people shouldn't shape your views. It's just not the right way for them to approach that. They've obviously got some major issues of their own."

"Well I'm sick of it and someone needs to get them out of here. I don't believe in that stuff. I hate religion. I don't even really buy the whole Arceus story either. I just don't care. I don't care how we got here; all that matters is that we're here now. I'm going to live my life how I want to and don't need some arrogant Christians telling me what to do."

"You know, I'm a Christian."

Drew looked at her with astonishment. "What?! You? But I thought-"

"Do you remember when we first met? And the kind of person I was?"

Yes. He remembered it clearly. Although he has the utmost respect for Lacey now, that wasn't always the case. He met her at his second Pokemon contest, where she brutally defeated him in the final round. While he admired her skills and her witty, sarcastic personality that was somewhat like his, he also noticed that she was not the nicest person. She was rude to people, swore all the time, was mildly violent, and was constantly arguing with people, especially about religion. She was a hardcore atheist and always found it necessary to interrogate and torment people for believing in Jesus. During one contest, another coordinator (who he later found out was Harley) was fighting with her, and he apparently said something nasty and she punched him in the face, knocking him out cold. She would've continued beating him up if security didn't intervene.

She wasn't happy back then. She wore a lot of heavy makeup, and one day he happened to notice scars on her wrists. At the time, she was struggling with substance abuse and had been hurt by a lot of people. She never did anything directly bad to Drew necessarily, but he still didn't appreciate her attitude and the way she lived life.

However, that all changed over time. She became best friends with Solidad, who was a Christian herself, and as time went on, she slowly started treating people better. Though she was still clearly dealing with a lot of issues, there was at least some improvement. She started hanging out with Drew and the two became good friends. He learned many of his coordinating skills by watching her. However, after she won the Grand Festival that year, she dropped out of contests, and he never knew why.

"Of course I remember. I'd have to be a blind moron not to notice that kind of difference," Drew said with yet another hair flip.

"And why do you think I changed?"

He looked slightly puzzled. "Well, uh… I just figured you grew up and matured, I guess. And Solidad's a good influence. And winning that ribbon cup too; all that glory must've made you feel on top of the world."

"You know… that same night that I won that ribbon cup, I loaded up my gun and almost took my life."

He slammed his hand on the railing, never so astonished. "You WHAT?! Why the hell would you do that? You were top coordinator! You WON. What more could you possibly want?"

"Exactly." She paused for a moment. "I was tired. Life was so heavy. And you know, as I was holding that giant cup of gold that night and priding myself on my 15 minutes of fame, I felt emptier than I have ever felt before. I had worked my whole life for that moment, and my prize was staring me in the face. But I just… didn't feel happy. I didn't feel fulfilled. It was all vanity. And so I figured, 'Well, if this is all there is, and there's nothing else besides this, nothing greater to live for… then why am I waking up every day? I've done what I set out to do, and I just don't want to do life anymore.' If a good friend of mine didn't catch me that night, and if I didn't have a crazy experience that led me to Jesus, I wouldn't be standing here now."

Drew stood there like a paralytic, not knowing if he should feel angry about her crediting her life to some God, or relieved that she was still alive.

"Let me ask you something, Drew. Don't let me make you feel pressured into answering a certain way, but truthfully: what are you living for? What is it you are so desperately seeking in life?"

There was a pause. Drew was trying to gather his thoughts. "Well… for as long as I can remember, my dream has always been to become top coordinator. I've been pursuing that dream for years."

"What about when you win? Then what? What if you win 50 ribbon cups? What does any of that mean in the end?"

"Well… there's always more competition…"

"Listen, Drew. As your friend, I care about you, and I don't want this to make you feel crappy about your dream. I just want you to think about it. And hey, just because those extremists are taking the wrong approach, that doesn't mean you should scoff at the idea of God. They're completely misrepresenting who He is. I know you are going to be top coordinator someday. I know you. But I don't want you to feel the emptiness that I felt when that day comes. Speaking from experience, there's a difference between experiencing victory and experiencing joy. Please just think about this next time you stand as a victor on stage: what are you looking for?"

Still frozen for a few more moments, and not really wanting to argue at that point, he finally came back and flipped his hair once more with a smirk. "You really think I'm gonna be top coordinator, huh?"

Lacey smiled and rolled her eyes. "Same old Drew. Well hey, I've gotta get going. Good luck tomorrow. Later!"

She took off back to the city and Drew just kept standing there thinking until the sun finished setting.

Walking back to the Pokemon Center, Lacey's words stuck like a plague in his mind and he couldn't shake the thought that maybe… maybe something there was some validity to all of this. And maybe it wasn't such a bad thing.

A/N: For the record, I DON'T actually believe dying your hair is a sin lol. I personally do it way too much anyways. I just thought that could be something ridiculous that the guy could say.

Lacey is obviously an OC; used that name because that's Flyleaf's vocalist's name. (: