Hey guys, Jeff here.
I bring you the 5th Chapter of this story.
Just a note, I think I predicted this story to be at least 5-6 chapters long; but as you can read, it won't be. I predict that it will be about 3 more chapters until this story is completed.
Anyways, let's get to reading...
As the sun started to set beyond the horizon and over the trees, where it will be hidden from view, it indicates to Ash, Clemont, Bonnie and Serena that nightfall was upon them. The sunset was peaceful and serene with grace, the calm and smooth breeze passed the gang in a slow motion whilst the leaves sway as it rushed past them, making them vibrate. Everything was perfect in terms of having a good night for Ash, Clemont and Bonnie; but for Serena it was the complete opposite.
Serena was far from thinking that the day would end perfectly, how it would be a fine evening for her. She was lost in thought about what happened this morning, about what Ash said to her. Ash said something that was hurtful and put her on an emotional distress of every second of this day. She felt heartbroken, rejected, embarrassed, isolated, lost, and all of these thoughts and emotions were just circling around her head – they all stayed in her head for the rest of the day, for the rest of her life of the incident this morning. All of these thoughts on her head were the ones a girl in love with someone else would not want to have.
Serena had been walking at a slower pace than usual, as usually she would be walking side-by-side by Bonnie, who always was ahead of the gang most of the time, as she normally walks ahead of her snail-paced big brother and Ash trundling along the footpath. Today, Serena was behind the whole gang, even behind Clemont, which made Ash surprised; but Clemont and Bonnie looked like they were surprised as well – to not arouse any suspicion from Ash – as they both knew the reason why she was acting like this today. Serena wanted for the time to just fly by, she wanted to get the day over and done with, she wanted to forget the whole thing; however she just can't get it out of her head no matter what she done to do so.
Serena wasn't a person who was shy and quiet – as she would have had a lot of energy and enthusiasm inside her – but today was different, today she was shy and quiet. She wanted to be isolated from everyone in the group. She just wants to stay away and just think through what had happened today, what had ruined her heart. She had already told Clemont and Bonnie to "Go away." in a forceful tone many times during the day. She understood why they were coming up to her from time to time, why they kept on trying to just talk to her – it was because they wanted her to be cheered up and to move on; but she can't do that as something was holding her back.
That certain something was her depression.
"Let's set up camp right here. Look, there's a river nearby to up our water, there's lots of space to play, so why not here?" Clemont suggested, as he noticed that nightfall was soon approaching, as he noticed that the sun had disappeared and was nowhere to be seen.
"That sound like a good idea." Ash said with confidence, as he did take account on Serena's fear of the dark, which was kind of nice of him to consider.
"Come on Dedenne, let's go and play on the grass." Bonnie said with glee, excited to come and play, but before that she came up to Serena and asked "Hey Serena, wanna join us?"
"Yeah, sure… in a bit…" Serena mumbled the words out of her mouth, completely forgotten what Bonnie actually said to her.
"Come on Serena, cheer up. You have been down the whole day. I don't want a pretty girl like you to be like this." Bonnie said in a reassuring voice. As she said this, this made Serena realised that she looked amazing – after all of that preparation, styling and cleaning back at the Pokémon Centre this morning; however this made her remember that she looked like this for Ash – who didn't notice anything – and made her feel even more down.
"Oh, sorry Serena. I kinda forgot." Bonnie apologised to Serena about mentioning the topic that she was so upset about.
"It's okay, Bonnie." Serena said letting her anger go, as she doesn't want to scold Bonnie – who was actually just trying to help her – as she thinks she was going to take it way too far for her liking.
"I understand what you were trying to do, thank you." Serena added, as she didn't expect the words 'I don't want a pretty girl like you to be like this.' coming out of Bonnie's mouth, she expected to be Ash that would have said something along those lines to her at least during the day – if he wasn't so dense.
"Well, I'm going to make supper." Clemont mentioned. He did this purposefully so that he can isolate Ash and Serena, making them on their own, as he want them to talk to each other; but he highly doubted that that was going to happen.
"I'm going to put up the tents over here." Ash mentioned, as he didn't want to not do anything, he wanted to make himself busy and occupied for some reason unknown and that only he knows.
At that moment, Serena had just walked off, passing Clemont – who was cooking some sort of stew that smelt delicious – Ash – who was pitching up their tents – and Bonnie – who was playing with Dedenne and Pikachu by the grassy area on the side. Serena continued to walk down in the direction to where the river was and sat down by the edge of the land. She sat on the grass and looked up onto the moon, which was upon appearing into the night sky filled with stars. She was trying to get rid of the memories of today, by just relaxing as she cleared her head.
Back at the camp, Ash had finished pitching up the tents. He had placed all of their sleeping bags in and their belongings inside, handling all of it with care. Clemont had also finished making his stew, their supper, and was currently preparing the table and laying out the cutlery and plates onto the neat and decorated tablecloth that Serena had personally made. At that point, Bonnie came up to Clemont and started tug his sleeve on his arm, and became distracted by Bonnie. All of his attention was now focused at Bonnie.
"Hey Clemont, I'm worried about Serena. Do you think we should do something?" Bonnie said in a worried tone, she was worried about Serena, about her behaviour today – as her attitude hasn't changed one bit since they left the Pokémon Centre.
"Yeah, why not?" Clemont said cheerfully to Bonnie, who was now satisfied and was jumping with joy – which only meant one thing, she had a plan.
"Right, so…" Bonnie whispered to Clemonts ear. She whispered something that was inaudible, even to anyone who was standing right next to them.
"All right. Let's just do it." Clemont responded after Bonnie told him the plan, as Bonnie gave him a cheeky wink and was displaying a huge grin on her face.
"Supper's ready." Clemont yelled as he tried to catch Ash and Serena's attention from afar distance.
"Okay." Ash said as he sent out all of his Pokémon from his Pokéballs and started running towards the food – as he was starving after all, which didn't surprise anyone.
"Right…" Serena replied with a soft tone, which was almost inaudible for anyone to hear.
As all of the Ash, Serena and Clemont's Pokémon gathered around in a circle on a patch of grass, they were all looking forward to being fed with some delicious Pokémon food. Pikachu, Frogadier, Fletchinder, Hawlucha, Braixen, Pancham, Dedenne, Chespin, and Bunnelby all waited patiently for all of their bowls to be filled up with Pokémon food by Ash and Clemont. As for Serena and Bonnie, they were both waiting patiently as well for the arrival of Ash and Clemont – who were both handing out the Pokémon food to everyone present.
After a few minutes later, Ash and Clemont finished handing out the Pokémon food to everyone, and also stopping a fight between Pancham and Chespin, and both headed over to meet Serena and Bonnie – who were waiting for them at the table. Clemont set about filling up their bowls with his warm scrumptious vegetable stew that he had just prepared. It contained vegetables; such as carrots, potatoes and all sorts – which Bonnie denied eating as she just hated the taste and the looks of vegetables, but Clemont always persuaded Bonnie to eat them, as he always says that "They are healthy for you."
"Wow, Clemont, this is delicious!" Ash exclaimed his happiness towards Clemont's masterpiece of a stew and was overjoyed by how far Clemont's cooking has gone. He knew it had improved since he met Serena's mum and asked her some recipes.
"Ash is right, Clemont. This is amazing!" Bonnie said as she savoured every bite, even though she realised that the stew contained vegetables; but she didn't mind as she found it very delicious.
"Stop it, you guys. You make me blush." Clemont said with a hint of embarrassment as he was scratching the back of his head.
"Hey, what's up with Braixen and Frogadier over there?" Bonnie pointed out that Braixen and Forgadier had isolated them from the other Pokémon; but this made the whole gang confused, as they didn't hate anyone and questions were raised of this weird behaviour.
"Yeah, I mean they are currently feeding each other and cuddling one another. How strange." Clemont said as he looked at Serena to check if she was interested. He was kind of signalling her that this was the perfect opportunity for her to undergo Tierno's plan, which she responded quite happily – as Bonnie whispered the phrase of "Don't give up 'till it's over." and gave Serena the confidence she needed the whole time, no, the whole day - and made her gotten over her depression.
"It might be that they are in love with one another." Serena said as she spoke up after not speaking for the whole day; which surprised Clemont and Bonnie, but mostly Ash.
"You may be right there, Serena." Clemont agreed to Serena's claim, but he was only doing this to support Serena.
"For sure. What do you think, Ash?" Bonnie turned to face Ash, who was just staring blankly at Braixen and Frogadier. He had never noticed the two acting like this; he had never seen them before acting strangely in his entire journey so far.
"You know, people and Pokémon do think alike. So, if they love each other, then…" Serena suggested as she gave off a wink to Ash, who actually didn't understand and became confused on what she had meant.
"Really..." Ash said as he was lost in thought. There were a lot of things that were going through his mind, a lot of things had clouded his head, he was thinking of what Serena had just suggested. He felt something jolt on his mind, something he had never thought of before, something he had missed so many times – love. He had missed this since the day Serena joined him in his adventure on the Kalos Region. He had missed the fact that she had been giving off hints to show her crush towards him. He had missed entirely everything that life had thrown at him; such as the hints, as most things pass over his head easily. He knew that his density has got something to do with this, and that it was holding him back from noticing anything.
"Ash, are you okay?" Clemont asked Ash, who was still staring blankly at Braixen and Frogadier. He had a hunch that Ash might have something in mind, but what exactly.
"Sorry, yeah I'm fine." Ash said in response to Clemont's concern.
As Ash, Serena and Bonnie turned away from staring at Braixen and Frogadier – who was confused as to why the whole gang were looking at them and was blushing a bit at doing so – Clemont picked up his phone from his pocket and sent someone a text reading 'I think it is time.' subtly under the table.
A LOT of things happening in this chapter.
What is Serena's next move? What was Clemont and Bonnie's plan? Had Ash gotten over his density? Who did Clemont contacted?
All questions will be anwered in good time - probably in the next chapter - so stick around! ;)
(If you want, you can predict the answer to these questions above in the reviews...)
Note: I will be taking a day worth of break on writing the next chapter, as tomorrow's Friday and I cannot afford to miss anything on Friday night (as I will be catching up on episodes on XY Series); therefore there won't be a chapter tomorrow. However, there will be a chapter on Saturday - hopefully I will write it in the morning for you all. *fingers crossed*
Anyways, please keep up the support on this story and I'll see you all in the next chapter!
See ya! Have a great day!