I'm thinking about doing some contest thing since I KNOW that I'm going to have some writer blocks moment. If anyone is actually interested, I have the description of the contest up on my profile and a poll to see if anyone will actually enter or not. Please take a moment and see what I had in mind for a possible contest, thank you. And to make things EXTRA clear, I WILL do another poll for those who ARE interested. But if you really want to, just PM me that you're interested and all. Thanks.

~oOo~

Summary: Remake of my original story "Bluebells and Lavenders". Drastic change ahead, beware!

My beta reader is BluebellsAndLavender, so if there is any problem with the grammar, feel free to take it up with her!

"speaking"

'thoughts'

The main characters are in their senior years (grade 12).

A/N: Today's chapter title is by Katy Perry.

~oOo~

An Ikarishipping Fanfiction

Re: Bluebells and Lavenders

Chapter Seven

"Part of Me"

~oOo~

Previously...

"Geez. You sure look on the positive side in things, huh Ash?"

He shrugged. "I do what I can!"

~oOo~

Dawn surprisingly enjoyed math, despite the fact that she was in a room filled with eleventh graders – and Ash.

The teacher had given them a lesson on geometry, one of Dawn's most loved units. Ms. Juniper walked around handing out worksheets so everyone could practice more on finding angles and side measurements.

"Dang, this is really difficult." Ash commented as he scratched his head.

"Really? I find it easy. These things are fun," Dawn replied. She was lucky enough to sit near a familiar person. She leaned forward and tapped Ash's shoulder.

"Hey, what did you get for number ten?"

He looked at her with blood-shot eyes. "I-I don't know...I don't get it..."

Ms. Juniper came around and helped out a boy, who was right next to Ash.

"'scuse me but. Do you know how to get this angle in number five?"

Dawn looked to her left and agreed to help her. The girl had slightly dark skin – possibly from a tan or so out in the sun. She had short cardinal red hair and sunglasses planted right atop of her head.

"Um, yeah sure!"

She grinned. "My name's Zoey, by the way. And welcome to VA."

Dawn smiled softly. "Thanks! I'm Dawn, as Ms. Juniper said earlier."

"Dawn! I need help!" Ash whined as he turned around in his chair. He saw that Dawn and Zoey stopped talking. "Oh. Hello Zoey."

The girl gave him a quick nod before inching her way back to her work.

The bluenette rocked forward and lightly pulled on Ash's hair.

"Ow!" He cried.

Her eyes moved to the corner and watched Zoey as she worked. Dawn decided to push the curiosity aside and leave questioning Ash later since she believed she was just being paranoid. She flashed him a haughty smile and played with the side of her nails. "Uh, did you get how to solve it now?"

~oOo~

Dawn's second lunch time at her new school was enjoyable. She and Gary had talked about similar things and it turns out that they have a lot in common. She caught May and Misty giving her a look that caused her to feel awkward and uncomfortable. She turned red and swatted the smirks away with her hand.

Ash was still having trouble with his math homework. Misty was next to him and offered to help him. He shook his head and planted a small peck on her cheeks, as he said that he was fine and would rather solve it himself.

"Ash, honey?"

The said boy got up. He smiled as he rushed over to his mom. "What are you doing here?"

"You forgot your lunch, sweetie," she replied in an awfully sweet tone.

Everyone watched as Ash and his mother convulsed and bonded for a couple of minutes. She left and everyone waved 'bye'. Ash, with his lunch, sat back down with a big smile until he saw the front of his lunch bag. His eyes drooped as he stared blankly at the bag.

"What's up, Ash?" Asked Misty.

He shook his head. "Nothing...just that...I thought mom threw this away..."

Misty peered over and saw the name. She frowned and rubbed his back. "It was probably a mistake. She's probably still not used to it."

"It's been three years," he snapped. "How could she not be used to it?"

"Hey, you alright there, Ashy boy?"

He huffed. "It's nothing. I'm not hungry anymore."

Ash got up and walked back inside the school building. Misty had already gotten up and ran in after him. Gary crawled over and took Ash's lunch box and his face too was crestfallen.

"Alright. I see." He muttered.

Dawn sat there and was filled with confusion. She looked back at Gary and the door.

"Hey, Gary. What happened? What's going on?" Drew asked. Dawn mentally sighed as the very same question had inhabited her brain left someone else's mouth.

"Ashy boy's mom did it again. This lunch bag here," he held up the blue and gray bag. "It used to belong to..."

"Who did it belong to?" May asked.

Gary fell silent. He looked at the bag in his hand and threw it on the ground as he got up. He looked down at everyone with blank eyes. "It's way too personal, you guys. You're better of asking Ashy boy himself."

And with that, Gary too left the lunch group. Leaving Drew, May and Dawn to absorb whatever knowledge that was spurted out beforehand. Drew was the first one to grab the lunch bag from the ground and turned it around. There was a name written in black at the front as it spelled Ashley.

"What do you actually think happened? Who's Ashley?" Dawn asked, finally raising her voice.

May looked around eerily and leaned in to the other two. "Well...when I remember three years ago, I passed by these tenth graders and they were basically bullying Ash. Saying really mean things like..."

Drew cocked an eyebrow. "Like what, May?"

"Like...tranny." She quickly sat back straight. Her eyes covered in an endless amount of worry. "It was really bad. They even shoved Ash into the girls washroom and trapped him in there."

"Wait so, you're saying that Ash is a trans?" Drew asked. Dawn could practically see the rusty gears in Drew's mind to churn.

"I...I think so?" She replied uneasily.

"He said that it's been three years...when did you guys come to Veilstone?" Asked Dawn.

May pondered a while and tapped her chin. Drew was the first to answer.

"I came here half-way through the ninth grade. I didn't start hanging with these guys until tenth grade."

The brunette nodded. "Well. I got here in grade nine. I wasn't friends with the others until three months after. The bit about him getting bullied? Yeah, that's when I met Ash and company. They were really nice."

"I though Ash was actually a dude. Turns out he's a she." Drew stated bluntly. May hit in with the bag.

"Drew! Don't be so insensitive!" She yelled.

"What?" He barked. "It's true, though. Ash's a girl!"

They three hadn't realized there was someone standing behind them until the person cleared their throat. The three turned around quickly as they recognized the person who made the cough.

"A-Ash!"

He stood there and looked small. His shoulders were slightly tucked in front. His head lowered but they could still see his deadpanned eyes. His hands were shoved into his pockets as he stared at the three.

"U-um. Dude, look. I didn't mean it like-" Drew got cut off.

"You know what, Drew?" He asked monotonously. "Save it. I don't want to listen to your excuses. If you're all so uncomfortable hanging out with a trans, then you don't need to come back here again."

As Ash began to turn around and leave, Drew and May called out to him. Dawn was stunned. Everything that had just happened flew past her so quickly. She hadn't the faintest idea on what to do. She had just discovered that a semi-friend of hers is transgendered (and was absolutely okay with that) and he told them all that they didn't need to continue to hang out here if they found it repulsive.

"Wait, Ash!" She shouted. In one swift movement, she went on one knee and charged towards the sullen boy.

"Listen Dawn. If you're here to say that I'm a freak, go ahead. I've heard everything before." He snapped.

Dawn's shoulders fell. "I'm not here to call you a freak. More like I don't care if you're trans. It's who you are. No one is allowed to take that part away from you."

He turned his head just a little and looked at her from the corner of his eyes. "You really telling the truth? That you don't care if I was a girl?"

The bluenette shook her head and beamed up at him. "I don't care one bit."

Ash cracked a smile. Not a second later did he let out a holler and clutched his sides. "Man, Dawn. You're the second girl who's ever said that they're okay with me being trans."

"Well isn't that a good thing? And I'm sure May and Drew feel the same. I know May doesn't mind. Drew was probably in shock, which is why he said something like that." She explained.

He sighed. "I know. I know Drew and May are good people. It just...annoys me sometimes."

Dawn placed a hand on his shoulder. "It'll be fine! No need to worry!"

Ash turned his head and faced Dawn with a small smile. "Thanks," he said hoarsely.

~oOo~

The tension between Ash, Drew and May disappeared and everyone was back to being friends and having things the way they were before they found out Ash was an FTM.

"So Ash," May started as she took a bite of her sandwich. "What did you look like? As a girl, I mean."

"May," Misty warned.

Ash waved his hand. "It's alright Misty."

Misty frowned but it was later replaced by a smile as she kissed his cheek. "Fine."

He shifted awkwardly as he took out his wallet. He grabbed a picture out of it and placed it on the ground. His mom was smiling gracefully as she had her arm around her daughter, a pretty blonde girl wearing an orange dress that had a red jewel fastened securely on a small blue ribbon that was placed over her collar bone. A pink ribbon was set perfectly on top of her head. The girl in the picture looked miserable and wore a forced smile.

"Ashy boy. I thought you burned all the pictures of yourself as a girl?" Gary poked Ash's arm lightly as he announced every word.

He rubbed his arm full of pokes and laughed. "Well. I haven't really gotten a chance to take a picture with my mom since we got here.

"Wait, if your mom is here. Why are you living in the dorms?" Drew asked.

Ash shrugged. "Well. I wanted to learn to be independent. I didn't want to continue relying on my mom to help me out. Plus, she might call me Ashley again."

"Harsh," Drew stated.

He nodded. "So that's why I wanted to stay in the dorms. I began to stay in the dorms in the tenth grade. I had to do a lot of convincing that I can make it on my own – on one condition."

"What was the condition?" May asked, taking another bite of her sandwich and sipping her juice box.

"That she brings me lunch. I always go and pick it up at the front of the school at the start of lunch. I just forgot to go there today. Stupid math," he scowled at his math workbook.

"Did you dye your hair black?"

Ash shook his head. "Yeah. A lot of people ask if I dyed my hair blonde since my parents aren't. Turns out grams used to be a blonde herself. Genetics is a pretty neat thing."

Everyone laughed and they all went back to finishing their lunch and getting ready for their next class.

The bell rang and everyone had scattered. Dawn checked her time table and smiled as she now had a spare. She decided to check out the library to do some homework – and to catch up on sleep. Dawn walked into the library and was amazed at how large it was. She marveled on the fact that there were study rooms that each student can occupy. Dawn swiftly climbed up the stairs and walked to the empty rooms. When she had passed all the other rooms, she noticed that there were more than one person in them. She thought it was fun but shook her head as she concentrated on trying to finish her homework.

The door closed tightly and the room was cool. She placed her bag on the ground and planted her books on the table. Dawn looked around and out the window. She saw something etched on the window frame and leaned down to get a better look.

S.M. and P.S.

07/25/10

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A/N: So. Second day at a new school. Dawn found out something about Ash. The reason I did that is because I remembered in one episode, when Ash, Misty and Brock were at Celadon city, Ash wasn't allowed in the...gym because he insulted their perfume that they make, and so he and Team Rocket had some mutual agreement and worked together in order to get in. Ash dressed up as a girl, Team Rocket became his parents. It was a funny episode.

Anyways. Yeah. Genetics. It's possible to have a child with different hair colour from you or your spouse. Wish I learned that in bio...it was the only thing that I looked forward too since the bio I was learning was human biology...*sigh* Ah well.

ALSO – realized that the whole tension between Ash/May/Drew was short-lived... I don't exactly have an answer to why that is...

-EPRika-

Serenity: HOLYCRAPONACRACKERIDONTEVEN. Thatisall.