Hey folks, finally back home and into things.

I know it's long, but bear with me.

First thing's first, I wanna get the contest out of the way, which I forgot to do last chapter.

No one guessed it! Ah well, more points for me to keep.

The song is called "Dawn's theme" or "Hikari's theme".

Okay second thing is that I'm thinking of starting a new story.

I'll still going to continue this one, though, so don't worry.

The story will be about Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum; Lucas, Barry, and Dawn's characters from the Pokemon Adventures manga.

It would be a story involving a lot more the Sinnoh region and towns, Team Galactic, Gyms, and, of course Pokemon.

It will be more of an adventure story. More of a Pokemon-esque story than a High School fic like this one.

The thing is, I wanna know if you guys think that it would be a good idea and if you'd read it.

Because I don't want to start a new story that would interfere with this one for nothing, mind you.

So just send me a PM or leave a review about your thoughts!

Also, keep the reviews rolling! Even if you just want to say hi, or if you wanna tell everyone about how much you love your grandma!

Awesome, enjoy guys!

Chapter 12

"You're SURE you want to go here, Dawn?" I asked her.

"Yep!"

"But, it's so expensive! And it's only lunch!"

"It's my treat. I have to thank you somehow for everything that you've done for me these past few days!"

"I feel guilty. It'll pour money right out of you!"

She smiled and shook her head. "You're TOO nice sometimes. C'mon!"

She brought me to pretty much the most expensive restaurant you could find around Twinleaf. You wouldn't find anything more expensive until you got into downtown Jubilife. I felt really bad. Even if she WAS rich and even if she could probably just ask her mom for money and she would gladly supply, I hated being a money-hassle to others. I'd much rather pay with my own money, which I didn't have on me at the moment, unfortunately.

We sat down at a two-seated table near the window.

"Okay, order anything you want." Dawn immediately told me.

"Jesus! 7 bucks for an appetizer salad! Geez, Dawn, I'm going to run you bankrupt!"

She laughed. "Enough! Stop being so polite! Can't you just accept the fact that I'm trying to thank you for something you did for me and just order some food?"

I prepared my next comeback. "Well, a simple thank you..."

She grabbed and held my hand that was resting on the table. "Ash, what you and Brock did for me was unreal. Seriously. I can never thank you enough. No one's ever done something so nice for me. Not even..."

She trailed off for about a second, and then immediately snapped back into things. "Never mind. Anyways, what are you having?"

She stared down at her menu. I continued to look at her. Eventually, she wondered why I wasn't answering and looked up.

"Hmm?"

"Not even who?" I asked.

Her mouth opened a little and her face blushed. She leaned further back.

"What do you mean? Oh, it doesn't matter. Just stupid stuff. I think I'll have the salmon..."

I looked out the window. I asked myself if I wanted to do this, because the outcome was unpredictable. I took a deep breath, and decided to go for it.

"It's Paul, isn't it?"

Her eyebrows raised and her eyes widened, but her face remained blushed. She stared me in the eyes.

"Ugh, that asshole? Don't even get me started about him. He's..."

"Dawn, enough." I interrupted. "Seriously. What happened between you and Paul? Don't deny. I know something went down."

"Ash, you already know everything. I only talked to him because I felt sorry for him..."

"Dawn, we both know that's not true. Wanna know how you can REALLY thank me? Tell me. What happened between you two?"

It was her turn to look out the window. I knew I had hit her where it hurts.

"I'm sorry for being so upfront and demanding about this." I told her. "But I know something's hurting you inside. I hate to see you like this. And I'm nearly certain he's got something to do with it."

She turned and looked in my eyes. Her eyes were filled with defeat and anxiety. "Okay." She whispered nearly inaudibly.

"It's true that I only started to talk to Paul last year because I felt sorry for him. He became my prized possession because I thought I could change him forever. But I haven't been completely truthful."

She looked deeper into me, then looked down. "Paul and I..." She looked up. "We..." She suddenly stopped. She quickly got up out of her chair. "Why am I even telling you this?" She yelled. "You're still just the new kid!"

She stormed out. "Dawn!" I yelled. To no avail.

I sat alone at the table. Maybe it was too early to ask about these things. What a huge mistake that was.

The waitress came up to me.

"Can I start you off with a drink?" She asked.

"Nah, sorry. I was just leaving."

I started back home. Walking home, I thought about how stupid I was. I had only recently met Dawn and I had already started to get into her business. But it was strange. I felt like I HAD to get into her business, like I had to protect her. Something was obviously bothering her and I tried to help her. Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to do after all.

"Whoa, is that Ash?" A voice yelled from behind me. That voice was unmistakably Brock's deep voice.

I turned to find my predictions were correct.

"Ash, how's Dawn doing? Do you know? Is she still at your place?" He asked me.

"She's alright. She's up and walking. Ah, she went... home? I think..."

"Wow! That's great news. Hey, I really gotta get home! See ya tomorrow at school! Don't forget, second day of tryouts tomorrow!"

Ugh. I had totally forgotten about school. Just another place to suffer for about 6 hours. At least I'll be seeing everyone again. But I'll be seeing Paul too. Great...

"See ya, Brock!" We said our goodbyes.

I finally arrived home, and it was around mid-afternoon. My mom was still hanging around. I watched a little TV, but soon enough it was already time for dinner. I had a delicious penne pasta prepared by my mom. It was great.

But it wasn't good enough to make me forget about everything that had happened today. Dawn was still, as always, in the back of my mind. I couldn't stand her being mad at me. It was driving me crazy. And the looks that my mom was giving me at the dinner table weren't helping at all. She always seemed to know when something was bothered me.

After dinner, I did some last-minute homework for school the next day. I couldn't believe that I had forgotten about all the homework that I had to do! Then again, the long weekend felt like an eternity with all that had happened, which made it pretty easy to forget. And even if I did remember, I doubted that I would have done it anytime before. I would have probably left it to do last-minute, like I was doing anyways.

After the homework was finally done, I started to pack my schoolbag. I wasn't feeling any better, mind you. I still felt very lousy about her being mad at me.

I decided to call it an early day and go to bed. I needed tomorrow to come as fast as possible, because at least I would have some friends to talk to. I wanted to catch up with May, Jasmine, Kenny. Hell, I was even looking forward to seeing Misty and Gary! I was most excited to see Brock and chat about the soccer team, for which tryouts were being held after school. Paul, well, I think everyone could live without him.

My mood was starting to lift. I started to laugh at myself. The only reason I felt so depressed was because some girl walked away from lunch today. Lunch that I wasn't even going to pay for, nor did I plan for, so who cares!

There was a beeping noise near my night table. The phone was off the hook and the busy tone was sounding. Ugh, mom always knocked it over while cleaning. I hung it up and held onto it, thinking. I wasn't going to let anything ruin my mood anymore. I took a deep breath, picked up the phone, and dialed Dawn's number.

I was extremely nervous but confident at the same time. The phone rang once. I waited anxiously for someone to pick up. Twice. Still nothing. Three times. I was beginning to become upset, because I knew if no one picked up, I would never be able to build up to courage to do something like this again. Four times. I threw the phone against my night table in anger.

Immediately afterwards, a faint voice came from the phone. "Whoa, hello?"

I quickly scrambled to pick up the phone. "Yea, uhhh, Hello? Dawn?"

"Hello! Who's this?"

"Um, it's ah, Ash."

She hesitated. "O-Oh! Ash!"

I couldn't think of what to say. There was silence for about 5 seconds. Finally, Dawn spoke.

"Okay I'm going to be completely honest with you Ash, I've been thinking, and you didn't deserve what I did to you today. I'm really sorry. It was out of place."

Yes! I was so relieved "To be honest, yeah, it really wa-"

She cut me off. "If you really want to know so badly, I think I can trust you. You're right; Paul and I sort of had a 'thing'. But I'm not going to tell you over the phone. Tomorrow, at school. I'll tell you. I promise."

"Dawn? Hello?" The line went dead. She hung up.

You could say that I was very happy at that moment. Why wouldn't I be? Dawn was no longer mad at me, and I was finally going to find out what was going on between Dawn and Paul. Tomorrow was going to be so much sweeter, so it was even more reason to hit the hay. I hung up the phone, brushed my teeth, changed, hopped into bed, and turned off the lights.