Hello! Guess what folks, I'm not dead!

There are some things I should probably address.

I sincerely apologize with the bottom of my heart for the long wait.

I honestly thought I had already uploaded a chapter earlier this month, but it had been sitting finished on my computer, so here it is!

Everyone gets a free slap for me being an idiot!

Hopefully this will never happen again, I'm sorry!

I'm going to be gone for a week and a half tomorrow, but I will still keep working while I'm gone.

So I should have a chapter up when I get back!

So sorry guys, forgive me!

I haven't given up on this story, don't worry!

Enjoy!

Chapter 11

I was always liked in Pallet Town. I had no enemies there. Most people I knew were either very good friends, friends, or rarely acquaintances. We all knew each other and got along well with each other, through 15 years.

1 week in this so-far hellhole, and I've already got my first enemy.

Slowly, Paul walked up to me. "Who do you think you are? The next big thing? Face it, you're still just the new kid; always will be in my eyes. You hardly know anyone around here. Stop acting like you're so important. Ever since I first saw you, I knew you were bad news."

The whole time I had my eyes on his fists. He clenched them harder and harder with every breath he took. He continued.

"And you think you can take MY Dawn away from me? We've been friends for years, and lately we've felt more than friendship. I screwed up tonight, but I was drunk. Everyone does stupid things when they're drunk. Dawn's coming back to me. ME!"

I immediately picked up motion in Paul's arms and quickly grabbed his punching arm. I twisted it and pinned him against the wall. He was struggling like crazy. I wound up a punch when I felt resistance. Dawn had grabbed my arm and held it back.

At this point I was very confused, but I decided to let Dawn do whatever it was she wanted to. I stood ready, however.

I watched Dawn approach Paul. As Paul slowly turned around to look at her, she immediately gave him a knee right to the ribs, knocking the wind out of him. Paul fell helplessly to the ground, leaning on the wall.

It was Dawn's turn to talk. "Paul, we may have met when we were 5 years old, but I avoided you for a long while after that. I only started to talk to you last year because I felt sorry for you, despite all the bad things you did. I thought maybe if you had some real friends, you'd act differently. But you didn't. Somehow, I still thought I could change you. So I started to become defensive of you. I was happy when you started dating Ursula. I thought for sure you'd change. But you didn't, and you guys were over soon enough."

Paul got up "Dawn, you don't know the whole story. See we were at that party…"

"I know enough; more than you think I know, Paul. Do you really think I want to 'take you back'? Did you forget that just a minute ago you called me a bitch and punched me in the face? Stop calling me 'yours'. I was never, and will never be. Maybe we did have a thing, maybe not. But one thing's for sure. I'm done with you."

Paul slowly rose to his feet. He looked at her with soft eyes and simply said, "Well, if that's how you feel," and left, defeated.

Dawn turned to me and laughed. "Glad that's over!"

Her laugh turned into a nervous laugh, and eventually she started crying.

It was pretty obvious to me now (and I had a hunch even before then) that she still had some feelings for Paul. Something must have happened between them that I didn't know about. It made me uncomfortable to think about it, so I pushed it aside for the moment.

I sat her down and tried to comfort her.

It was somewhat difficult to do because she was in a fragile state. Even something as simple as "cheer up" could trigger unwanted emotions.

"Hey, Dawn. Let's get out of here. Let's go for a walk."

She looked up, wiped the tears for her eyes, and nodded.

We walked out the door and down her driveway, which honestly felt like an eternity to walk down. Her house still amazed me, despite everything that had just happened.

I lead her to the tree on which we had just previously sat.

"Ash, what do you want to be?" She finally spoke. "When you grow up, I mean."

I marvelled at the question. What did I want to be? Engineer, perhaps? Something to do with sciences? Most likely.

"Probably an engineer. Or something in that field or close to it. I love sciences, what can I say."

She giggled. "You're definitely far from average, Ash. You're something else." She smiled at me. Her smile was returned.

"And you?"

She stared in the distance. "I think…" She started. "I think I want to follow my mom's footsteps and be a coordinator. It sounds like so much fun! I'd really like to try it to see one day." She turned to me again. "What do you think?"

I blushed at her question. Time to look like an idiot.

"Alright, Dawn, I have a confession to make. I honestly have no idea what a coordinator is." I told her shamefully.

She giggled again. "A coordinator is someone who raises pokemon to participate in contests. You do know what a pokemon contest is, right?"

That much I did know, yes.

"Alright, enough teasing. I'm not THAT clueless"

Hmm, pokemon. I had totally forgotten about them. Maybe that's what I would do after all. Nah, It couldn't be. I had no experience with them yet and neither did my family, so how was I supposed to learn? Bad idea.

"Don't you think," Dawn interrupted my train of thought. "It would be amazing to travel the world with pokemon? I mean, travelling the world WITHOUT pokemon would be awesome. Well, that's the life of a coordinator. Doesn't it sound great?"

I answered truthfully. "That sounds incredible!"

I was glad that she was forgetting about what had previously happened and I was soaking in this bonding time we were having together. It was so nice to see her happy once again.

"Hey, isn't that Flint?"

I looked over where she was pointing.

"Wow, he's running fast!"

She was right. Flint was sprinting as fast as he could in our direction. Something about the situation seemed vaguely familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

He sprinted all the way up to us and stopped. He then proceeded to throw one of the those pokeballs at me, and the yellow pokemon that I had previously met emerged from it and smiled at me.

"Hey guys!" He was rushing. "Y-you can have that one. Hey, do you want th-them a-all? You can have 'em! I don't want 'em. I DON'T!"

He threw all the pokeballs at us. The yellow pokemon jumped on my shoulder.

This was the exact dream I had last night!

The yellow pokemon suddenly went back into its pokeball and the pokeballs slowly rolled down a slope that hid them on the other side of the tree. The two men from my dream grabbed Flint.

"I swear I didn't! I don't even have them, see? SEE? ASH!"

I was startled by the mention of my name. "Check him." I mumbled inaudibly.

"Alright, come with us!" The men pushed and pulled Flint.

"CHECK HIM!" I yelled.

They turned and stared at me. One nodded at the other, and they began checking. They didn't find anything.

"This isn't over." The men turned the corner and left.

"W-what just happened?" Dawn asked.

"Ash, remember those pokemon I showed you the other day?" He asked me.

"Yeah…"

"Okay, well they aren't actually my dad's. To be honest, and please don't tell anyone, I illegally bought some pokeballs and used my dad's REAL pokemon to catch them."

My jaw dropped like crazy at the news. I couldn't believe my ears.

"Those guys have been on my tail for a long time now. They've been suspicious. I made my pokemon battle together in the backyard and they heard me. And now here I am." He collected his pokeballs from the other side of the tree. "DON'T tell anyone."

"We won't," Dawn said, "But why? Why did you go out and catch those pokemon when you knew it was illegal? You're underage!"

"I wanna be a pokemon trainer, I really do! And I guess I just couldn't wait any longer to start."

A pokemon trainer? A pokemon trainer…

"What are you going to do when you go to get your starter pokemon and you show up already having pokemon?" Dawn asked.

"I-I dunno. We'll see. I'll see you later." He walked off.

Dawn laughed, amused. "Some people. Let's go get lunch, shall we? I'm starved!"

"Yeah, same here. Where do you want to go?"

"I've got a place in mind." She grabbed my hand and smiled. "I'll lead the way."

We walked hand-in-hand all the way to the restaurant of her choice. The whole time I watched her beautiful blue hair bounce with every step she took. You could say I was the happiest man on Earth, but that would be an understatement.