Update April 2013: This chapter has been updated and revised from its original version. Past errors have been fixed and adjustments have been made but the plot of the chapter, characters, and events have remained the same.

Thank you to all of my readers and reviewers! I officially reached over 300 reviews! Thanks so much! You all put the biggest smile on my face ever! :D I'm going to keep writing for you guys and update every Saturday as promised! Happy reading everyone, please review as usual! The contest starts in this chapter! Yay!

Responses to Reviews...
musiclover99: I have to agree with you on that one. I loved it! Did you like Mockingjay though? I felt that book was a little boring to be honest. :\ I never knew that Staraptor could use Heat Wave! I might have to incorporate that into this contest! That's actually a really cool mental image! :D
Shadow Lillies: I love Ninetales! It's so beautiful! :)
Itssupereffective: I've never given Advanceshipping much thought actually. I may have to check out some Advanceshipping fanfics. :) But thank you very much for saying what you said about my story! The Hunger Games is amazing!
Pear-Shaped: Lol, hi there! Thank you very much for your four reviews! Feel free to keep being forgetful haha ;D
The Last Poison Apple: Haha, same to both!
KK: Haha, thanks!
Sora-May: Thank you so much! I'm flattered that you think I have a talent for writing. :D
Claudette14: No way! You're like the best! Psh, don't try to beat me! :D Thanks!
Fprmr1: Lol, I considered making them a couple. Maybe I will? Maybe they'll play a part in getting May and Drew together? ;) Anyways, to answer you questions. First question: Vulpix wandered away from Growlithe for a second, so it ended up behind Drew and May. Second question: I freakin' love the Hunger Games with a blazing passion! Third question: I've been Peeta/Katniss since the beginning. I love Peeta so much! He's such a sweetheart! And it's fine! Lol, I had fun being interrogated! :D
LAPKat: HAHAHAH! Mr. Hothead! That reminds me so much of Mr. Rose! I'll have to have May call him that sometime soon! ;D
Chi-Chiwawa: May's not going to be wearing a dress to the contest, but she will be to the after party. And Harley's not going to be making a cameo until sometime later in the story. :) And he won't be gay lol! xD As for your math...I'm not good at math so I have no idea how you got that. O_O
chocolatehell: Lol, I don't get on facebook so much anymore either. :p My personal favorite fire-type would have to be Typhlosion. It's so cool-looking! xD Then it'd have to be Rapidash or Flareon. Can't decide :3 Good luck with the third book! I actually had a hard time finishing it. I wish the author would've written it differently. :\
leontinees: You live in Spain? I'm even more jealous now! I love Spain! It's such a beautiful country! :O And I want to include a cameo Leaf, don't you worry. :)
LuvPeaceCandy: Lol! I'm continuing! :D
FlygonFan: I hated Brianna. Simply said and done. She annoyed me so much. _ Thanks for all of your compliments. I absolutely love all the pokémon that you listed, by the way. Especially Empoleon and Luxray :D
OffMyTea: Hehe, don't keel me! I updated! xD
Jace'sVampiress97: Haha! I think you accidentally swapped the 'o' in 'love' for the 'i' in 'quite' and vice versa. xD Thanks for reading!
Pokemaster: Why do you hate Vulpix? It's so cute! :O And I'm so happy that you share my love for the Hunger Games! I swear, I'm so obsessed with the series, it's not even funny! :P
EeveeTransformed: Lol, the first part of your review was funny. :) Sorry that I can't update sooner as you always request, but I just don't have time to do so. At least I'm updating on a consistent, weekly schedule, right? :P
OrangesAreAwesome: I have to agree with your username, oranges are so good! Thank you very much for your reviews! You get a bag of cookies! :D
ginika: Hey, Gary's pretty hott, too. I'd have difficulty choosing between him and Drew, too. xD Sorry about shortening May's battle. I was going to make it longer, but I figured since she's going to be participating in the contest in this chapter and the next that it'd be fine. :P Saturday's here, so read and make sure to review please! :)
LoveLoverGrl: Thanks! :D
BeautiflyxMasquerainFTW: They look a lot more feminine than growlithes do. I've always had difficulty accepting the fact that there are male vulpixes, too. :P I might just make the two of them a couple and Beautifly and Masquerain, too. Since they just so happen to belong to Drew and May, too. xD

Love Unexpected chapter 18

There was an audible thumping on the door of May's room in the Pokémon Center when she left the bathroom. Her hair was still damp, gathered over one of her shoulders as she slipped her arms through a terry cloth robe. Tying the sash around her waist, she dragged her feet across the brown carpet of the room and went to the door.

Blush rose up her neck to her face when she saw Drew standing in the doorway.

Drew himself displayed a drastic change of expression when his scowl transitioned to an embarrassed, wide-eyed look. He nearly dropped the two bags in his arms.

"Er, sorry, I didn't know you were...showering," he apologized, while giving an awkward cough and diverting his gaze to the ground.

Unfortunately, that only gave him a clear view of her bare legs poking out from the robe, which barely grazed her knees. He struggled to not think about what else was lying beneath the terry cloth material, but it was extremely difficult. Dirty, perverted thoughts were already fighting to invade his mind.

May immediately pulled the two sides of her robe closer together around her neck to cover up her exposed collarbone.

"It's fine. What's up?" she asked to distract him from the fact that she was practically naked. Though she had to admit, he was being very civil about the whole the situation.

"I just wanted to come wake you in case you hadn't woken already. The contest is in two hours, after all," he explained, the red fading from his cheeks. "Are you going to let me in?"

"What's in the bags?" May asked before letting him in, like an officer interrogating a criminal suspect.

Drew rolled his eyes and stepped into the room, not bothering to wait for May's approval.

"Your brain," he retorted as he shut the door behind him with his foot.

May glared at the back of his head in return.

"That was uncalled for," she growled.

"If you had one, you would've opened the door for me."

"Well, my apologies, your highness. I haven't quite mastered the art of creating clones of myself so that one can open the door for you while I'm in the shower!"

"Whatever," Drew muttered with another eye roll, ignoring her remark. He made his way over to the bed and sat down, placing the two bags beside him as he did so.

May followed suit, walking over to peer into one of the bags that had a delicious scent wafting from it. Inside lay a rectangular styrofoam container with a clear lid over the hearty breakfast that it contained. Outside of the container were the utensils and a cup of juice.

May blinked at the contents in surprise.

"Oh, you brought me breakfast," she mused. Then, she reached into the other bag to discover the contents. Her eyebrows furrowed when she pulled out a torchic plushie with no face. "What's this?"

"I figured you may need it. I heard from the shop owner that it appears to take on the same facial expression as you when you look at it. Basically, you frown, it frowns. You smile, it smiles," Drew explained.

May's eyebrows remained furrowed, while she tried to make sense of his words. She began to move the plushie around in her hands, studying the stuffed pokémon, until Drew reached up to put a hand around her wrist to stop her.

"Look," he said and waited until she met his eyes. He met hers with an intense gaze to emphasize his next words. "Since you already know now that I like you, I have nothing more to hide. I promise that I'm going to be doing all that I can to make you happy now until whenever you decide that you don't want me around anymore." He paused to give her a second to take in his blunt declaration. "So, I hope that from now on, whenever you look at it, it'll be smiling at you."

May remained silent after Drew finished talking as her eyes darted from his to the plushie's nonexistent face. She didn't know what to say back to him. Thank you? Gee, that's so nice of you? Or, As sweet as this is, I still don't feel the same way?

For some reason, she couldn't bring herself to say any of those words. None of them seemed right to say. Thank you just didn't seem to be enough for his declaration. Gee, that's so nice of you was much too sarcastic and joking to be fitted for the situation. And as sweet as this is, I still don't feel the same way just sounded much too harsh and rude, even in her own head. Silence was the only thing that suited.

"I think this is the part where you're supposed to hug me," Drew deadpanned when he figured that she wouldn't be saying anything soon.

May couldn't help but laugh at his blunt statement. Without another word, she sat on the bed and threw her arms around his neck, pulling him into a hug just like she had on the night before they left on the ferry. Like the night that Brendan had confessed to her.

But as of that moment, the sudden recollection of the memory didn't conjure sadness for her because she actually found a reason to be happy. As of that moment, she was able to forget everything as she held onto Drew and he held her back. She felt comforted with the thought that she would at least have him by her side whenever sadness came to her. He would be there to cheer her up and help her through her troubles. He would be there until she didn't want him around anymore. Him and the plushie.

"Well, I should probably let you get ready and eat your breakfast," Drew decided after he felt the hug was getting too long for May's comfort.

In all honesty, he didn't think the hug had lasted long enough for his liking. He could have held onto her for the rest of the day, but if he hugged her any longer, he would delay her breakfast and trip to the contest.

"Should I meet you back here and escort you or should I just go straight to the Contest Building?" he asked.

"Just go straight to the building. I can get there on my own," May insisted.

"Alright, I'll see you later then," Drew said, standing up from the bed and heading for the door. He stopped when he remembered something. "Hey May? If someone knocks on your door again, be sure to put on some clothes first before you open it, alright? I don't want anyone else seeing you in all of your naked glory."

"I'm not fully naked, you jerk—I'm covered," May pointed out as she crossed her arms over her chest.

She glared at Drew when he turned around to smirk at her. There was a naughty glint in his eyes that told her she wasn't going to like what was going to come out of his mouth next.

"I don't want anyone seeing you naked either. Save that for me."

May's jaw felt as if it disconnected from her skull when her mouth dropped open, her eyes practically bugging out of their sockets. The gentleman Drew practically just jumped out of the window as the pervert took his place.

The look was so funny that Drew almost busted out laughing before she threw the plushie at him with as much force as she could muster. He simply caught it and threw it on the bed, far out of her reach in case she decided to throw it again.

"You know, if I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd definitely put 'U' and 'I' together. We're both very violent people," he joked, just to yank her chain again.

"Oh really? Because I'd put 'F' and 'U' together instead," May shot back, still glaring angrily.

"I don't think it's wise to be saying that to a guy, especially when you're standing in the same room as him with nothing but a robe on."

Drew let out a hearty laugh and hurried to disappear through the door when he saw her reaching for a pillow.

After he disappeared, May huffed and plopped herself down on her elbow on the bed. Shaking her head, she reached for the bag that contained her breakfast and took out the contents to begin to eat.

"Good luck today, by the way. I'll be rooting for you in the crowd," Drew's voice suddenly piped from the door.

May snapped her head up to find that the guy had poked his head back into the room. When he saw her turn, he offered her a cheeky smile, tossed her her daily red rose, and waved goodbye before taking his leave.

May chuckled to herself as she caught the rose.

"The annoying grasshead," she muttered to herself as she turned around to reach for the plushie.

She held it up along with the rose so that she could look at it, smiling at it to see if Drew was lying or not.

To her amusement, its blank face reflected the same smile on her face right back at her.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Lavender Town Contest!" Lilian Meridian, the contest announcer, exclaimed into the microphone that she clutched in her hand. "I hope you all got your sleep last night because you won't want to miss a wink of today's show! We have a total of sixteen coordinators assembled here today to show you what they've got. Get ready for some exciting performances, folks!

"Now, please help me welcome the very first of the sixteen coordinators, Alec Joseph from the Unova region! Come on out here, Alec!"

May watched the action from a wall-mount television in the back room as the coordinator named Alec headed onto the stage. The crowd roared in excitement upon seeing him—the girls in particular—so May assumed that he was a pretty popular coordinator. She understood why when the screen jumped to a shot of his face.

His dark brown hair was tousled into the perfect messy 'do, with one lone strand hanging in front of his forehead. The confident, slightly cocky smile on his face was dazzling, while his brilliant blue eyes were twinkling with a naughty glint against his fair skin. May had to admit he was pretty cute.

The samurott that he released was quite attractive, too. It was a quadruped water type pokémon with long, white bushy whiskers extending from its snout and head. A large, rounded gold shell with spikes acted as a helmet, and a long horn protruded from the area over its forehead. The same gold-colored armor encased its legs to give it a very warrior-like appearance. It roared mightily to make an impression.

"Oh my, a samurott! Talk about a rare pokémon! This water type's exclusive only to the Unova region, folks, so take a good look!" Lilian gushed.

Alec smirked at the remark, making the female audience shriek and swoon.

"Samurott, use Scald!" he commanded.

Samurott immediately conjured an enormous orb of steaming hot water in the air above. Next, it continued its appeal with a Grass Knot. A long blade of grass appeared out of the bottom of the orb and snaked its way upward, where it tied into a knot at the north pole before it snaked back to the bottom.

The process repeated over and over with multiple blades of grass sprouting from within the boiling hot water until the entire orb was encased in a intricately knotted grass layer. The steam seeped out through the tiny openings and cooked the grass until it wrinkled and turned into the color of cooked seaweed.

"Air Slash!"

Samurott leapt into the air with its right forefoot extended. The gold armor that encased most of its forefoot had transformed into a sword, which it used to slice away at the sphere. The orb remained intact for only a split second before a loud ripping sound tore through the air. The grass then exploded, and an eruption of steam mushroomed into the air from where the water should have been.

To conclude its performance, Samurott landed in the steam. Once the mist cleared, the pokémon and its trainer bowed to put an end to the appeal. Alec was rewarded with an excited uproar from the crowd and a high score of 29.2 from the judges.

"That was really good," a coordinator in the back room with May whispered to the coordinator on his right.

The girl nodded in return, unable to speak for her name was just called by Lilian to go next. She gulped nervously, clenched the PokéBall in her hand tightly, and walked out of the room.

May concluded that she was probably a newbie coordinator, and smiled thoughtfully to herself. She still remembered feeling the same way at her first contest. Sadly, Ash, Brock, and her brother were not going to be out in the stands cheering her on this time around. There was only Drew, and the thought made her stomach knot like the blades of grass in Alec's performance. As enjoyable as Drew's company was (sometimes), she still found herself wishing that it were her three boys instead. She had to visit them on her journey in Kanto.

Coordinator after coordinator continued to be called onto the stage until only two remained: May, and another male coordinator by the name of Derek. A series of excellent appeals had gone by in a flash, performed by a variety of different pokémon. The majority of them were pokémon that originated from the Kanto region with only three of them being from other regions like Johto and Hoenn, excluding Alec's samurott.

Scores were given out to the trainers of those pokémon. The scores fell in a range of 26.7 to 29.8. May dug her thumbnail in the back of her hand when she saw how great the highest score was. She worried that she would not score high enough to move onto the battle rounds, and the thought scared her.

Only eight out of the sixteen coordinators would be advancing. Would she be one of them?

"Our second to last coordinator will be May Maple, from the Hoenn region! Let's all help welcome her out onto the stage!" Lilian suddenly announced.

May pushed off of the bench that she was sitting on and strode out of the back room, detaching the PokéBall containing her pokémon of choice from her bracelet along the way. The crowd greeted her just as it greeted the coordinators before her: excitedly and with eagerness to see what she had in store for them all.

She discreetly took a deep breath before enlarging her PokéBall, tossing it into the air, where it split open to release her lillipup in a white flash. It appeared in front of her on the stage, where it yipped and wagged its tail happily as it took in the large crowd. A loud aw sounded from everyone when they saw the little pokémon.

"Aw, look at that face. I think it just won the judges over already with its cuteness alone," Lillian said into the microphone. "Let's see what this adorable little thing has in store for us!"

May smiled to herself. Lillipup was adorable alright, but the routine that they had practiced was definitely not a cutesy one. Lillipup was capable of being cute, but there was more to it than just the cuteness, and she was about to show them just that.

"Alright Lillipup, use Shadow Ball, then Fire Fang," she commanded.

Lillipup shot a black and purple ball into the air and followed it. After leaping onto the top, it clamped down on the ball with its teeth, lighting the whole thing on fire as the ball began to fall back down.

The flames grew wilder, engulfing the ball entirely as it began to pick up speed as it shot towards the ground like a meteor. Just as the ball was a foot from the ground, Lillipup did an airborne backflip so that it was beneath the ball instead of on top of it.

When Lillipup's back touched the ground, it freed the ball from its feet, only to thrust the ball back into the air again with its paws. From there, the ball split into two separate halves, which fell back down to Lillipup, who juggled them both and tossed them back into the air. Once again, the balls split into two, creating a total of four. The process repeated until Lillipup was juggling a total of sixteen burning spheres of shadows.

"Now, use Thunder Wave!"

Lillipup threw all sixteen balls into the air before it pushed itself into the air with its tail and landed on all fours. Huge waves of electricity flowed out of the ground from where it stood to create a rippling effect in the form of a circle.

After falling back down, the balls were carried to the edge of the circle by the waves, where they spaced themselves equally apart. They danced up and down along the edge for a brief moment until the Thunder Wave ceased. Then, they leapt into the air, where they each disappeared in a puff of smoke, putting an end to May's performance.

"Now, that was something entirely unexpected from a pokémon like Lillipup," Lilian exclaimed into the microphone as the crowd cheered for May and Lillipup. "Judges, what do you all have to say about that appeal?"

"I say that that was one of the best appeals I've seen all day. May put together a wonderful routine and Lillipup demonstrated a great amount of power. I'm sure everyone will agree with me when I say that I did not think that a pokémon of such cuteness could pull something like that off. I am delightfully impressed by both the coordinator and the pokémon," Mr. Contesta, the main contest judge, commented.

"Remarkable!" Mr. Suziko, the contest judge beside Contesta, remarked.

May almost laughed aloud. That one word was all that laconic man ever said about an appeal, no matter how bad or good it was. To say that he was a man of few words was an understatement.

"I am very pleased by that display, May, and even more pleased by the way you trained Lillipup. I can tell right away if a trainer has been taking proper care and training his or her pokémon correctly, and I can tell you right now you've done just that. You've got yourself a well-rounded pokémon," the town's Nurse Joy said.

After she was done speaking, she and the other two judges put in May's score which was displayed on the large screen above them. A promising 28.7.

"Well, there you have it, May! A wonderful score for a wonderful performance! I'm sure you and Lillipup are very happy about that," Lilian exclaimed, and then she laughed. "Look at Lillipup! It's still wagging!"

All eyes turned to the little puppy, who was in fact still wagging away. May chuckled as the crowd laughed before she bent down and scooped it into her arms and headed back into the back rooms.

Everyone clapped for her as she walked back, Drew especially. He was thrilled to have gotten the chance to see May perform live in a contest for the first time in his life. A minute into her appeal, and he was already captivated by her. Watching her as she commanded Lillipup with such grace was entrancing, yet she still managed to say the commands in the right tone to make everyone's heart speed up in anticipation. She deserved the score she got, if not a higher one, and he couldn't wait to see her battle. This time, he would enjoy being a witness instead of her opponent.

He smirked when he saw her picture appear on the large display screen above the judges after the last coordinator made his appeal.

She was advancing to the next round.

Author's Note: Lol, "burning balls." xD Drew's a pervert, isn't he? Cookies for all of you who recognized Alec because, if you did, that means you read my Absol fanfic. ;) Hope you all enjoyed! Please review! The battle rounds will begin and end in the next chapter. See you next Saturday! :)