Chapter 5

BEEP BEEP BEEP BE-!

'Ugh, five more minutes,' thought Dawn as she pulled her hand back into the comfort of her bed. She squeezed her eyes tightly expecting her mom to know on her door to tell her to wake up, but nothing came.

She sat up in her bed and looked around the room, 'Oh, that's right, I'm not living with Mom anymore,' she turned to her Pokémon partner and smiled before getting ready for school. As soon as she finished quickly returned Piplup back to its Pokéball and left her room. After making sure it was locked, she went down the hall and knocked on - hopefully - May's door. Luckily for her, that was the right door, as the blue eye brunette greeted her with a smile.

"Morning, Dawn," said May.

"Good morning, May," replied Dawn, "ready to go to school?"

"Yup," she answered as she grabbed her school bag and closed the door behind her.

The two girls walked to short distance to the school while talking about the happenings that happened the day before, "I still can't believe she's going to our school."

"I know right, but then again there are only 2 schools here - well one finished and one yet to be opened," said May.

"Yeah, I guess you're right, I heard from Salvia that Julie's parents invested a lot of money in this school and Professor Oak and them are longtime friends!"

"I wonder why Gary never told us anything?"

"Knowing him, he probably forgot," the two girls laughed.

"Oh, that reminds me!" said May taking out her Pokégear, "the new lockers are available today!"

"Really?!"

"Yep!" She scrolled through a couple of messages and showed it to Dawn, "I was able to coax Drew into flirting with one of the daughters of the committee members to give us a heads up!"

"Did you get jealous?" Teased Dawn.

"N-no!" Blushed May, "besides! It was for the good of the team – sacrifices needed to be made!"

Dawn rolled her eyes at her friend's pathetic excuse, "well, where do we go to pick our locker numbers?"

"Thought you'd never ask," replied May grabbing the bluenette's hand and dragging her to the Activity Building and stopping in front of the Student Council's Office.

"Lucas! We're here to get my locker number~!" sang May as she opened the door without knocking. However, before either she or Dawn could take a step into the office, the two froze in place before the scene in front of them. Julie Starlight was on the floor sitting on top of Lucas's chest in the most embarrassing of ways possible.

"A-are we interrupting something?" asked Dawn as her face heated up.

"W-what?!" Asked the two before looking at each other and blushing so hard it would make a Tamato Berry jealous.

Before either of them could react, a voice from behind the girls spoke, "hey, would either of you move? I'd like to get my locker number before the rest of the school gets here."

The girls looked back with wide eyes and blushing faces to see it was Gary, Leaf and Drew.

"What's up with those faces?" Asked Leaf and peaked inside the room only to find their Secretary and President still in the same position as before - the two had frozen in place when they realized what it looked like to others.

"Lucas, I didn't know you had it in you, man," snickered Gary as he put the pieces together when he saw piles of papers on the floor. Luckily for the duo, Leaf smacked him in the head with a book no one had any intention of finding out where it came from.

Coming to her senses, the young idol quickly got to her feet and avoided any eye contact with the blue-eyed brunette - who was more than happy to oblige as he was too busy picking up scattered papers on the floor.

"H-here you go," Lucas said when he finished quickly.

"T-thanks," she replied making the mistake of looking at him - making them once again turn red, "I - umm - I-I'll check over these and highlight all the students that need to have passed by to get their locker numbers."

"R-right, I'll have Dawn make a list of the students needed, so don't worry about it."

"O-okay!" And with that the two went to opposite sides of the room without looking back at the other. Once their friends had gotten over the…incident, they proceed to go their separate ways before silently agreeing to find out what had just happened.

Leaf, out of the three, decided to start the conversation with Julie, "morning, Julie."

"Good morning, Leaf," she replied as she scanned the paper and highlighted the names that had stars next to them.

"So," she said, she turned to the other two who were giving her signs of encouragement, she sighed, "okay, I suck at being discrete," she said truthfully making Julie look up at her with a questioning look, "mind telling us what just happened between you and Lucas back there on the floor?" she asked teasingly, "I mean, for all I know you guys were about to-"

"No!" Said Julie rather quickly and loudly, earning a questioning look from the other side, "no," she replied a bit calmer and quieter, "umm, well you see what happened was..."

She had gotten a text in her Pokégear the night before about early attendance for the following day, not really wanting to ask how Prince Charming had gotten her number she replied with a simple, "okay, be there as early as I can."

However, instead of ending like the conversation as she thought she had, he went on to say, "you better not oversleep princess P"

Really pushing her nerves she replied with a witty remark - long story short they had an argument about when was the best time to sleep, who would show up first and belittling each other over simple matters.

When Julie had arrived at the school, she had felt rather proud of herself because she was more than sure that she had made it way earlier than Prince Charming. Sadly that was not the case, since once she reached her destination - there he was, dark hair and sparkling eyes - I mean - plain blue eyes. The two met each other face to face and sparks flew – well, more like lighting did.

Julie took a deep breath, "Mr. President," she greeted briskly.

"Ms. Secretary," he replied in the same manner and opened the door, "after you," he said.

"Thanks," she replied a bit bitterly.

Julie put down her things as Lucas sorted out some papers at his desk, not long after getting settled, someone knocked on the door, "Delivery," said a cheery-voice on the other side.

"I'll get it," she said wanting to feel useful for once.

She opened the door and was greeted Nurse Joy.

"Good morning, Ms. Julie," greeted the nurse, "I have a delivery for the Student Council, I hope it's not too heavy."

Julie looked at small stack in the nurse's hands, "of course not," she smiled.

"Perfect!" And handed her the papers, "these are papers that need to be signed and overlooked by Lucas by the end of the day from the clubs."

"Thank you, Nurse Joy," she replied, she was about to turn away, when the nurse continued, "and here is the list of students that he requested."

"He...requested?" She asked uncertainty.

"Yes, they are for the students who will be getting their lockers today during lunch and tomorrow morning, the remodeling finally finished, so the hallways will not be as packed as before!"

'Ah! That makes more sense,' she thought to herself, she then looked at the large stacks on the cart the Pokémon Nurse was apparently pushing, "um, if you'll excuse me I'll give these to Lucas before I can take those off your hands."

"Of course!" Nurse Joy smiled.

Julie turned towards Lucas and put the papers on the corner of his desk, "what's this?" He asked.

"Club papers that need to be read and signed by the end of the day," she replied before turning around, for a moment there she thought she heard him groan, but thought her mind was playing tricks of her.

She grabbed the first stack and quickly made her way back to her seat and put them on top of her desk, she went back to get the second and last stack - which for some reason seemed heavier than the first, "thanks Nurse Joy," she said as the nurse bowed lightly and left pushing the cart. Julie rearranged her hold on the papers in one arm and quickly shut the door with her other hand - barely catching the stack with both as it almost tumbled into the floor.

"Is that the list of students?" asked Lucas looking up from his work briefly.

"Actually, it's part of it," she replied nodding her head to the stack already in her seat, "I'm gonna highlight the names of the students who need to pick their locker numbers for tomorrow and make a list," she lightly threw the stack in the air to regain her hold on it.

The brunette nodded for a moment before asking, "do you need help with that?"

"What?" She said turning her whole body towards him a bit too quickly making her stagger with the extra weight in her hands.

"Whoa! Easy their tiger," he said as he quickly stood up and steadied her, "here, let me take a few," he said grabbing more than half the stack with ease and putting it on top of his desk, "there, better for you princess?"

For a small, brief moment, She had a actually thought of him as nice and caring, but then he opened his mouth again, "will you stop calling me that?" She asked bitterly.

"What?"

"Princess! I hate it when you do that!"

"Why? I'm simply calling you as you are," he grinned at her.

"Ugh! I'm not a princess!"

"Are too! I mean - who else can't lift a stack of papers?"

"For your information, I was doing just fine!"

"Oh really?" He taunted her, "because it seemed to me that you were struggling there."

"Was not! I could have handled that just fine if you hadn't meddled in!" She turned her back to him; she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing he was right.

"Oh really?" He asked mockingly.

"Yes, really!" She replied turning around to face - however she hadn't realized he was closer to her than she had expected and bumped directly into him so fast it send them both falling to the floor...

"…And that's how you guys found us," ended Julie.

"I always thought those things happened to anime characters," say May shocked.

"And in mangas," added Leaf.

"Anyway, here's the first part of the list," she said handing Dawn the small stack of the stacks.

"The first part?" asked Dawn. Julie pointed her finger to the reminding large stacks near Lucas's desk, "Oh dear Arceus!"

"Yep," she said sounding the "p," "would any of you mind passing me the rest of the list?"

"Even, better, I'm going to help," said Leaf as she walked away.

"Me, too," replied May as she grabbed an entire stack by herself.

"Thanks, you guys," smiled the young idol.

"No problem, besides, this will go a whole lot faster," said Leaf as she split her stack with Julie.

"In that case, I'm going to start typing these up really quickly and have them printed by fourth period."

On the other side of the room, the guys watched as the girls worked together to get their job done faster.

"Is it me or do they get along better with Julie than with any other Secretary that has been here?" asked Gary.

"It's not just you, I noticed it too," said Lucas as he went back to work.

"Any idea as to why?" asked Drew.

"I don't know, maybe the fact that a talented-friendless idol shows up it's easy for them to get along since she doesn't have any friend preferences."

"How do you know she's friendless?" they asked.

Lucas froze while signing a paper from the Elementary Division, 'Crap,' he thought to himself, "I mean, do you know if she knows somebody at this school?"

The two thought for a minute, before shaking his head, "nope, anyone that I remember," said Drew.

"I used to know Julie," said Gary thinking aloud, "but that was way back when I was 5 or something."

"You knew her?" asked Lucas looking up from his papers.

"Yeah, her parents were once Grandpa's assistants."

"What happened?"

"I don't know, all I know is they stopped coming one day and that was it," he replied putting his hands behind his back, "never heard of her since until she become a famous idol."

"How come you never said anything yesterday?"

"Didn't think they were the same person; she's changed a lot over the years," he said taking one of the papers from Lucas's stack, "Grandpa told me yesterday when he came by to visit – hey this isn't a monthly report, it's a love letter to you!"

"Give me that," said Lucas standing up and snatching the paper from his hands, he sighed, "I told them not to keep doing this."

"Who?"

"Who do you think?"

"Your fan club?" asked Drew

"Yep," he replied as he folded the paper, "maybe I should go talk to them again."

"Do you really think that's a good idea?"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh I don't know, maybe the fact that the last time you went in there you barely came out...alive."

"Oh. Yeah…" he said looking down, "then what should I do?"

"I don't know, ask Dawn to do it?"

"I'm not doing it," she said as she passed them with her laptop.

"What? Why?" asked her brother with pleading eyes.

"The one and only time I went in there, they harassed me for:your toothbrush, a lock of your hair, a clipping of your toenail," she shuddered, "and much, much more."

"Okay, that's just gross," said Drew.

"Says the person whose fan club keeps stealing sweaty towels," replied Lucas.

"Touché," he murmured.

"Okay, I'm done with the list," said Julie as she pushed the last paper towards Dawn, she turned to face Lucas, "exactly how are we going to give people their locker numbers? There aren't any next to their names…"

"Raffle," answered Lucas.

"Excuse me?"

"All the locker numbers and their combinations are already here in this bag," he said bringing out a bag from behind his desk, "everyone is going to pick one and that'll be their locker."

"So there is absolutely no way I can choose which locker I want?" asked May.

"Nope."

"Damn it! I woke up extra early for it too!"

"Sorry, May," said the Student Body President, "but I didn't think you'd want to pick first."

"But I still get to grab my locker first? Right?" She asked hopefully

He smiled, "yeah," he pushed the bag towards her, "take a pick."

"Yay!" She exclaimed as she stuck her hand in deep, before pulling out a number, "yes! This is near the cafeteria!"

"Obsessed with food much?" Teased Drew.

May stuck out her tongue at him, as he went in and picked a paper himself, "what did you get, fancy pants?"

He looked at the paper in his hand before turning towards her, "guess."

"Hmm, at the back of the school?"

"Nope, near the cafeteria!"

"What?! Let me see that!" She said as she took the innocent piece of paper from his hand, "oh come on! Your locker is right in front of mine!"

"Guess you can call it 'luck'?"

"Urgh," she groaned as she grabbed her bag, "Well, I'll see you guys soon, I want to put away my stuff before this place becomes too crowded to leave."

"Alright, bye May," said Leaf and Dawn.

"Thanks again for the help," waved Julie.

When the two were gone, Julie asked aloud, "they like each other, right?"

"Yep!"

"Pretty much."

"That sums their relationship really."

"If you can even call it that..."

"So why...?"

"They're too stubborn," answered Leaf as she checked May's and Drew's names off the list.

"More like prideful," snickered Gary as he sneakily took back the love letter from Lucas's desk.

"Hmm, I see," said Julie as she looked outside the window, a reminiscence look crossed her eyes for a moment before she turned back to them, "So, does that mean I can pick my locker as well?" she asked with a smile.

Lucas looked at her weirdly, "Sure," he said cautiously as he pushed the bag towards her.

She nodded and picked the first folded paper her fingers touched, unlike May who had buried her hand in. She looked at the number and then turned to look at the group, "Well, I need to put some of my books away, so if you guys don't mind, I'll be right back," and with that she grabbed her bag and left the room without waiting for a reply.

Once the door closed, the group teens looked at it for a good minute.

"There's something wrong with her," said Gary and Lucas. The two turned to look at one another, "How do you know that?" they both asked each other. Lucas gave Gary a pointed look, he answered first, "call it intuition if you'd please," he then narrowed his eyes at him, "What about you?"

Lucas shrugged, "Don't know, just something seemed off."

"Right," Gary nodded, "So you noticed the girl you like has something wrong going on."

"Exactly - wait no! I don't like her!" He blushed lightly at the accusation, "I mean I -!"

Gary laughed, "Relax, man. I was just teasing you."

Lucas frowned as he grumbled something under his breath before taking the letter from Gary's hands once more, "And give me that!"

Dawn looked up from the list for a brief second, "And how did you guys know something was wrong? I mean, she seemed pretty much fine to me."

"I agree," said Leaf before narrowing her eyes at her boyfriend, "You wouldn't be paying extra attention to her would you?"

"D-don't be ridiculous!"

"Why are you stuttering then?"

"C-can you blame me? When you look at someone like that, anybody would feel uncomfortable!"

She narrowed them even more before backing up and standing behind Dawn.

The four stayed silent waiting for the rest to show up, the only sound that came was the clicking of keys as Dawn typed. Soon the others arrived and filled the room with their chatter, Julie came back after a while, her demeanor different from previously as she giggled along with Lyra.

Not long after a crowd of students hoarded the door for their locker numbers, they opened the doors and set a table in between them. They had the list out in front and had the students sign their name and locker numbers. When the first bell ran, they started dispersing away the crowd and put everything away and just like yesterday Lucas walked Julie to her class before leaving her under Gary's supervision.

During their class, Gary couldn't help as his eyes wandered away from the projected screen and towards the girl that sat on his left. He would he see her write down something before ferociously erasing it and scribbling more things under it. At first he thought she was an avid note taker like him, but he noticed that not once had she looked up to their teacher; it was only when Professor Carolina called out to her that she looked up.

"Miss Julie?"

No response.

"Miss Julie!"

She looked up as if realizing where she was for the first time, "Y-yes?"

The Sinnoh Champion's grandmother narrowed her eyes, "would you mind telling us Skinner's theory – unless my class has bored you?"

A couple students snickered as they witness the idol blush a deep red before answering, "Skinner believed that anyone – both human or animal – could be conditioned through the right type of reinforcement presented in the environment."

The older woman looked at the girl before turning around, "Correct, now if you look here…" she continued as she changed the slides with her clicker.

Gary saw Julie smile before turning back to her notebook and scribbling in it once more. He narrowed his eyes a bit, there was something fishy going on – and he was going to find out what it was. But first he should start paying attention before a certain professor called him out instead.

Leaf frowned as she witnessed her boyfriend once again turn back to his note taking, she felt wary about the way he was behaving. There was something off about him, but maybe she was just being ridiculous, after all, they were all friends; it was okay to worry about each other, right?

Julie looked at the small piece of paper that had just landed in her desk; she discretely looked to both sides of her wondering who it was from, however she found no one. She opened it and read the two words written in them,

'I'm sorry.'

She looked up to see Professor Juniper still teaching her lesson, she peeked to her right and saw Prince Charming looking at her. She almost jumped out of her seat, but restrained herself as she looked down at the scribbled note. She let a small smile slip out before neatly writing something and tossing it to him. He opened the paper up and read,

'What for?'

He replied and threw it back to her,

'Yesterday.'

She looked at him confused but noticed he wasn't paying attention her, she quickly wrote down,

'What about yesterday?'

He sighed as he pushed his pride away,

'You know, making you cry…twice. I'm sorry.'

Her eyes widened as she turned her head towards him, he had his head down so she couldn't really see his face but she could see the tip of his ears had turned red. She blushed lightly before writing,

'Thank you.'

He turned towards her and saw her scribbling down on her notebook as fast as she could, still he knew that her writing would be flawless, just like the one he had in his hands in this moment.

Their lunch break had arrived quicker than they had expected and just like the morning, their 40-minute break passed by in the blink of an eye and they were back in class. Their school day went on smoothly, when their Battle Class started, Julie witnessed for the first time a Contest Battle with her very own eyes. Although the battle against Drew and Kenny was short lived, she was truly inspired by it. In her mind she could already picture ways to incorporate her Pokémon in her concerts, something she was known for doing for her live shows.

"Interested?" asked May when she noticed the idol's eyes gleam with excitement.

"Very," she replied and turned around to face the brunette, "I've seen many contests on a TV screen, but I've never thought they would this breathtaking."

May laughed, "Well nothing says elegance like contest battles, although they could also be used to show strength as well, isn't that right Ash?"

"You know it, May."

The young idol turned to said boy, "I thought direct battles was more of your forte though, Ash."

"They are, but knowing the different ways Pokémon battle is important too. At more than one point, I've participated in contest battles myself."

"Really?!"

"Yeah, but as nice as they are, I tend to forget about the elegance behind them and just battle with my normal tactics," he said as he rubbed the back of his neck, "but most of my battle moves come from contest battles so it's not like I don't learn anything."

"Don't you mean from Dawn's contest battles?" teased May.

"…That's what I said," he replied looking at her weirdly.

May pouted, "You're too dense for your own good," she said as she stood up.

Julie followed the brunette with her eyes as she stood face to face against Leaf, "What about Leaf? Does she do contest battle as well?"

"Not really," replied Gary, "She's more into the theatricals of it, sort of like you."

"Oh."

"Yeah, but…"

"But?" she turned to him.

"Do – do you remember me?" he asked, his curiosity getting the best of him.

"Of course I do," he started to smile, "I just met you yesterday, it's not that hard to forget you know. I have a pretty good memory you know."

He sighed and pushed further on, "No, I mean do you remember me from before yesterday?"

She looked at him with a confused look before her head straightened and a look of recognition crossed her face, before he could say anything she turned back to the contest battle, "Sorry, I don't."

He looked at her shocked, "you're lying."

"hmm?" she turned towards him with a small smile.

"Julie," he said seriously as he grabbed her hand, "do you?"

She looked down as her shoulders dropped, "Yeah…"

"Then why didn't you say anything yesterday?"

"You didn't say anything," she looked up at him, "I know you didn't remember me, I just didn't want to put you in the spot," she pulled her hand away as she tried to focus once more on the dazzlingly moves.

He rubbed the back of his neck, so she did know, "sorry."

She turned towards him, "huh?"

"I said sorry, I didn't mean to forget about you," he gave her an apologetic smile.

She giggled a bit, "hey, don't worry about it. We haven't seen each for - what? 12 years?" she smiled at him, "besides, your memory isn't that bad."

"Are you saying my memory is horrible?"

"No, just that it isn't as bad as I thought it would be future Professor Oak."

"How did-?"

"I remembered."

"Of course you did," he chuckled.

"The winner of this round is May!" they heard Nurse Joy announce, Julie turned back to the battlefield, "Aw man, I missed it!" she pouted, "This is all your fault."

"My fault?!"

"Yes," she stuck out her tongue, "you and your sorry."

"Then I guess I don't have to ask Dawn and May for a small contest battle?"

"Wait, I take it back, please do!"

He laughed at her quick change, "Alright, alright, I will," he patted her head affectionately.

That was how Leaf found them when she went up to take her seat, her heart ached when she saw them. In her mind the only thing that ran through her head was, 'He's never patted my head like that…'

Okay, I have no idea where that last part was going, I've just wanted to make Leaf jealous . Even though it would normally be Gary, but still! I have to have fun while writing or else I won't be able to write! D:

Please Review~!

-Karie