The Love of an Outsider
May Maple was a girl who was neglected by her parents. They always spent time with their son Max. Before Max was born, both parents loved her. Know, because Max has decided to take his father's place in the gym leading industry, they no longer accept her. May has wanted to be a Pokémon Coordinator, the main thing they despised. They hated it because it was something based on more than battle and performance.
Even though May wanted to be the best, her parents had basically disowned her.
Her mother had just reminded her how little she was worth. She had run off crying to her room. It was a small corner on the second floor. It was the furthest from the stairs. The door looked like it had survived a war. The bland blue paint in the room was peeling, the window boarded up, no power, clothes scattered around, and her bed a ragged chewed up mattress with the thinnest sheets possible.
She tried to cry out, but her father threatened to beat her as he walked in from fishing with Max. She looked in the ruined mirror. She was wearing a red toboggan with her brown hair coming down from both sides. Her simple ragged red hoodie had tears that revealed her white undershirt. She wore jeans that had holes not from being bought like that, but being nearly destroyed from wearing them almost constantly.
Tears stained her tender pink cheeks and glistened in her beautiful azure eyes. She looked down and saw her beaten gold and black shoes. She heard her father say they were going out to eat and for her to find something. She lied on her bed and just thought of the hatred and desperation in her heart. She missed the games and cooking with her mother. She missed the way her father would play with her and love her.
Those days were behind her. She got up and walked from the house, down the street a few blocks to a new club that allowed minors to enter and listen to the traveling bands. Bands that made their way to the Hoenn region would usually stop in the larger cities and play. She was bored and wanted to drown her sorrows in music.
She entered and sat at a booth towards the back. The bar itself was a dark one that had neon lights that stripped the ceiling. A large section in the center front was reserved as a dance floor. A small stage with basic equipment also sat up there. The place had booths along the wall and tables surrounding the dance floor. It was always jam packed with someone playing something.
Some lame ass band was up playing some shitty song that sound even worse than the original version. They had remixed it and tried to call it the same thing. The losers finally finished the song and walked off stage like they were famous or something.
Then the announcer said, "Next, we have a group that come from a far away place. They have been to Kanto, Johto, and also the Orange Islands. They both play music and train their Pokémon. In fact, some of their Pokémon have been taught to play instruments. Please welcome the Traveling Monarchs!"
Four people got up on stage. One instantly stood out for two reasons. First, she was a ginger and second, she was a girl. Her hair was pulled back in a large ponytail. She had some hair covering her right eye. She wore a yellow jacket with an aqua blue shirt. She wore short cut off jeans with red heels that rode up to her knees. Red gloves covered her hands as she approached the keyboard.
A tanned fellow with brown spiked hair and a long sleeved green shirt stepped behind the drums. He wore tattered jeans and black shoes as he whipped his sticks from his pocket, twirled them, and then caught them. Another dude had a red band around his head with messy dark hair. His green sleeveless jacket had a red shirt under it with black pants and shoes. He held a silver bass with green strings.
The lead singer/guitarist walked onto the stage. He had jet black, frosted hair. About half his hair covered up his left eye and rest narrowly missed the other eye. He was tanned slightly, and wore a black leather jacket. Under that, he had a black shirt with the bands insignia. It was a shadow of a Beautifly. The wings were tipped in blood, leaving a short trail across the shirt. It was in front of a white background that looked like a gravestone shaped in the form of the Sinnoh region. His dark red pants led down to black shoes with the same insignia on the sides. His guitar had the insignia painted on the front and the blood trailed into the strings, which were also the same color.
He stepped back and turned towards the group. The announcer said, "Remember ladies, Tracy and Ash are single." The bassist and guitarist looked out at the crowd. It seemed like Ash the guitarist was looking directly at her. She thought that everyone was thinking they were being looked at. Single? She doubted this looking at the two. They were both incredibly good looking. She started to feel awkward because Ash was still looking into the crowd. She felt like he was peering into her soul.
He turned back and mouthed 1,2,3,4 and they started playing a song. The song was Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 1 by Pink Floyd.
Dad is flown, cross the ocean.
Leaving just a… memory
The snapshot in the… family album
Daddy what else did you leave for me?
Daddy what you leave behind for me?
All in all, it was just a brick in the wall
All in all, it was all just bricks in the wall.
The way he sounded truly struck a chord in heart. He was a loner, without a father to love him, like her. She wondered if his mother cared for him. Obviously that father figure was never there for him. She felt this connection between them deepen. They were a lot better than any band she had heard before.
Suddenly, Ash called out into the audience, "Any of you out there musically inclined?" He peered around for people, but almost no one in Petalburg city played an instrument. Most people just listened to different bands. She used to play the guitar, but that was a long time ago.
Someone that used to know her sitting at a table called out, "May Maple, the girl in the back can play the guitar," while pointing towards her. He looked directly at her and called on her.
"Okay," she said as she walked up through the crowd and stood next to Ash. One of the workers walked by and handed her a used guitar. They started to play something with a little bit more difficulty. They played Live & Learn by Crush 40. Ash sung the lyrics and May played the guitar mostly.
Can you feel alive? Moving through your veins?
Oooh… It looks like you came back for more! Yeah!
Can you feel the time? Slipping down your spine?
Oooh… You trying to ignore! Yeah!
But you can hardly swallow
Your fears and pain
When you can't help but follow
It puts you right back from you came
Live and learn, hanging on the edge of tomorrow.
Live and learn, from the words from yesterday
Live and learn, if you lead or if you follow!
Live and learn, you never find your way
Can feel the life? Tangling you up inside?
Yeah… Now you're face down on the floor
But you can save your sorrows
Your pain and betrayal
But you can't help but follow
It puts you right back where you came
Live and learn, hanging on the edge of tomorrow.
Live and learn, from the words from yesterday
Live and learn, if you lead or if you follow!
Live and learn, you may never find your way
Oh yeah!
Large guitar solo played expertly by May for about 30 seconds.
There's a face that's searching far and wide
There's a place that you dreamed you'd never find
Hold onto what if Hold onto what if!
Live and learn, hanging on the edge of tomorrow.
Live and learn, from the words from yesterday
Live and learn, if you lead or if you follow!
Live and learn, you may never find your way
Live and learn, hanging on the edge of tomorrow.
Live and learn, from the words from yesterday
Live and learn, if you lead or if you follow!
Live and learn, you may never find your way
Live and learn, yeah yeah yeah yeah (2x)
She felt invigorated. This was the first time in a long time she had felt the joy of being free. No one had been able to make her smile since her brother had been born. "Oh Ash, can I play one more with you guys?"
"Hell yeah," he said. "You're so good, I think that you should join our band. We're in desperate need of a backup guitar. One more song and it'll be settled." They set back up and started to play Welcome to the Family by Avenged Sevenfold.
Hey kid. Do I have your attention? I know the way you been living
Life so reckless, tragedy endless. Welcome to the family
Hey! There's something missing. Only time will alter your vision.
Never question lethal injection Welcome to the family
Not long ago you would have found the answers so crystal clear.
Within a day you find yourself living in constant fear.
They continued to play until the end of the joint guitar solo, in which Ash and May played expertly side-by-side. They sounded like a couple of true rockers jamming out to each other. Then, at about the time for the bridge, May's parents stormed in with Max sneering like a bitch. They screamed out, "You worthless piece of trash, get your ass back to the house right now!" She stood there unmoving. She had found her life and they weren't going to stop it.
Her father ran through the crowd and grabbed her arm. He stood on the stage and leaned her into a spanking position. "Please dad! Not here in front of everyone!"
"You should of thought of that before you refused to come home!" he answered as his hand came down. An icy cold hand stopped the arm in midswing. It was the hand of Ash Ketchum. He started singing,
I see your standards been dethroned
Cast out in a world you'd never know
Stand there, place your weapons by your side.
May's father lowered his hand at the sound of the last line.
It's a war, and in the end we'll surely lose but that's all right.
He let May go and spat on her. He slapped Ash to the ground and walked off, dragging May behind her while Max watched the whole thing with a smirk, like this happened often. Which it did. People often stood up for her and were left cringing in fear. Not Ash. He stood up and his band walked solemnly off the stage and out the back door.