Chapter 8

Julie stared outside her limo with a smile on her way to school.

"What's up with that smile?" she heard Michael as in front of her.

"Nothing," she replied still smiling.

"You're happy aren't you?"

"Well no duh, Einstein," she said turning to him.

"Any particular reason for that?"

She shook her head. "Nope, just glad to be able to see my friends once more."

The elder Starlight smiled sincerely at her. "I never thought I'd hear those words come from you."

"What?"

"Your friends, not mine or dad's, just yours."

"They're your friends too," she said, a light blush creeping up her neck.

"Yeah, but they were you friends before mine," he countered, still smiling at her.

The car came to a stop. "Bye," she said getting out of the car as the chauffer opened the door for her.

"Have a nice day at school," he said waving goodbye to her.

When their chauffer entered the car once more, he sat in Julie's spot.

"Where to, Mr. Michael?" asked the driver.

"Let's take a visit to our old friend, 'Romeo', Chris," answered Michael as he looked outside the window with cold eyes. "I believe we haven't spoken to him for a while and a stunt such as the one from last night cannot be over looked."

"Yes, sir," answered the older man changing the direction of their destination.

She was content, yes, she was not going to deny that. Not even the many fans that surrounded her and asked her for a picture or autograph brought her down. Nope, at this point none of that mattered to her. She was simply glad that she could come back to school after missing so much. Sure she had managed to catch up in her classes with no problem thanks to Michael and their extensive library, but the reason she was truly happy was because she could try once again to have a normal life – or as normal as it could get.

"Well, that's a smile I haven't since forever," said a voice next to her.

"Hi, Gary," she said taking out her books from her locker. "And it hasn't been that long-"

"10 years," he said leaning on the locker next to hers. "Seems pretty long."

"Okay, it's in a while," she said closing it. She looked around. "Where's Mr. President?"

"With the other Presidents," he replied pushing himself off. "They're having their monthly meeting."

"Isn't it the end of the month?" she asked him as she started walking to her class.

"Yeah, but then you came along," he said walking along with her.

"Me?"

"Yeah, you know having a national – maybe global, idol can really spice things up."

She rolled her eyes.

"Oh come on," he said stopping front of her first period. "No school can stay peaceful when a hugely popular idol shows up at their doorsteps."

"Alright, alright," she said. "By the way, are you coming tonight?"

"Yeah, not like I have choice," he replied sticking his hands in his pockets.

She giggled. "See you 3rd period."

"See ya," he said as he watched her enter her class and sit in her seat. When she sat down she was greeted by Brianna, one of May's good friends and one of Drew's admirers.

"Hey," he felt someone pat on his shoulder. "What are you doing here? I thought we were going to meet up at the cafeteria…"

"Yeah, sorry," he said scratching the back of his head. "I came to drop off Julie."

A flash of hurt passed through her brown eyes. "Ju…lie?"

"Yeah, Lucas couldn't come this morning," he added unaware of what Leaf was experiencing. "Oh, and I'm sorry, I won't be able to make it today."

"What? Why?" she whined.

"I have to do this thing for my grandpa," he explained with an apologetic smile.

"B-but," she pouted. "It's a week before our anniversary! You know we always do our special dinner a week before…"

"I know, but I can't do it this time," he said. "I'm sorry, sweetheart."

She looked away.

"I promise, I'll make it up to you somehow," he said before he kissed her cheek. "I'll see you in 3rd period, okay?"

She nodded and watched him as he walked away.

"What's with the long face?" Lucas asked her.

"Nothing, I just have to cancel our dinner plans for tonight…"

"Our?"

"Me and Gary's."

"Oh," he said. "I still don't see why you guys celebrate a week earlier…"

She rolled her eyes with an amused smile. "Not like we actual meant it to happen, something always seemed to happen on the day of so we just decided to celebrate a week earlier."

"Yes, because that is so normal," he replied sitting down.

"Shut up," she huffed as she sat down and opened her textbook.

'Is this class ever going to end?' thought Dawn as she put her head down next to her textbook. 'Maybe I should have followed Misty's lead and taken Tactical Strategies instead.'

She sighed. They were reviewing for their exam next week and as much as she loved knowing about how Pokémon had changed through the centuries, she really thought she could be doing something else worthwhile. She lifted her head up and looked at her notebook. It was filled with different sticky notes here and there and a bunch of lines colored in different colors, each matching the color of a sticky note. She flipped to the back of her notebook and started doodling. At this point, she didn't care if she got caught drawing and writing 'Ash and Dawn' by Drew. She was way past embarrassment at this point, everyone knew, and she did mean everyone, except for maybe the raven-haired teenager and the international idol, but it was only a matter of time before Julie figured it out as well since she was able to spot on quickly on May and Drew.

She somehow found herself writing Pearlshipping in cursive over and over again. 'That Lyra,' she thought to herself. 'Giving us weird names.' But as weird as it was, it had nice ring to it, it was as if it had meant to describe their relationship in a single word. Dawn chuckled. She had to stop listening to the brunette so much. As much as she loved Lyra, she kept trying to make Pearlshipping a thing for the past 3 years, of course part of the plan had included her and Paul going out for a while. If she was really honest with herself, she would admit that she really liked Paul, but his arrogance and pride got to the best of her at times.

The guy was sweet when he wanted to be, and as rare as that was, it was worth spending time with him. But when Kenny accidently let it out about Dawn's feelings for Ash, things turned sour. He would become to overbearing for her to handle, he wouldn't let her go out with her friends, it had turned into a nightmare. She sighed remembering those times, ironically it happened just as she was getting over Ash as well. And she probably would have too if said person hadn't found her crying the day after the breakup at the park all alone.

Ash was her best friend – correction, her best guy friend. The two were in sync most of the time, and like everyone else said, they were the perfect duo. But of course part of the perfect duo included a dense teenage boy unable to see past the line of friends. She always wondered how Misty was able to put up with it having known him the longest. They all knew Misty had grown feelings for Ash once upon a time during her travels with him, how she was able to put up with how dense he was…they all could only help but wonder. Even Gary was baffled at times when Ash was so oblivious to her feelings.

Ash Ketchum was surely a mystery, good thing for her she loved a good mystery.

"You know, if you ever decide to stop writing on your notebook, Mrs. Dawn Ketchum, I think you could still make it to class," said Drew from behind her.

She jumped in her seat. "Drew! How come you didn't tell me class was over?" she asked as she packed all her thing away.

"I did, like 3 times now."

She groaned. "Did May pass by already?"

"Yeah," he said as he put his hands behind his back and walked out into the busy hallway. "You didn't respond so I told her to go along."

She walked alongside him. "She's going to kill me," she said as she reached her class.

"Don't forget to save a couple snacks for lunch!" he said as he walked away.

"I won't!" she yelled back before entering her class.

Julie had about had it. "Can you stop?" she asked a bit irritated.

"Can I stop what?" he replied cheekily.

"I'm serious, Gary," she said glaring at him.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said trying to hold in his laughter.

She scowled at him and went back to work. She could hear Drew snickering on her left as Lucas tried to keep his smile down. She sighed lightly, she would get stuck with the 3 of them for a group project. She continued working on the chart in front of her. So far she had only one-fourth done, of course, she would have had more of it done if it weren't for the fact that her group members were snickering every now and then. Oh, there it was again.

She put her pen down. "Okay, seriously, what is up with the giggling fit?"

"It's nothing," said Gary trying to keep a straight face but failing.

"Come on," she whined. "You guys were supposed to give me the rest of the information for this thing and all you've done is look at me and-" she stopped talking. "I-is there something on my face?" she almost yelped as she searched for her mirror in her bag. She looked at her reflection and found nothing wrong. No food stuck between her teeth, no random pimple waiting to pop out, no pen smudges on her cheeks, nothing.

Gary reach out and closed the mirror in her hands. "There's nothing on your face," he said with a small smile.

"Then what is it?" she pouted.

"You just look like you're having the time of your life," said Drew as he leaned back in his seat.

"I beg your pardon?"

Lucas cleared his throat to keep himself from chuckling. "You've been smiling this whole time while working on this huge project. You know most people would dread getting the most complicated part of the project, right? You just look like your – I don't know – at a shopping center with a credit card that has no limit."

She blushed and looked down. "D-do I really look like I'm fun?"

"Yeah," the three nodded.

"S-sorry," she said trying to avoid their eyes and continued working.

"Hey, we don't mind," said Gary as he petted her head from across. "You know this reminds me of that time you – ow!"

She looked at him with wide eyes. He looked at her questionably, as if asking 'Why did you kick me?' She simply shook her head a little and went back to the chart.

"That time she what?" asked Lucas curious as to why he stopped talking.

"Huh? Oh nothing, I think in the end it was Ash," he said and picked up his pen and started writing something down.

"Right," he said slowly before looking at Drew. The green-haired teenager shrugged and followed Gary's lead. Lucas narrowed his eyes and went back to his note. There was something going on between the two, he knew that, and he was pretty sure Leaf knew it as well, only she was probably thinking on a different level of what was probably going on. He sighed, Juliette Starlight was a mystery that remained unsolved, and he didn't like that. He was going to figure out what went through her pretty little head someway, and he was not going to give up until he did.

Ash went back to his seat after managing to land a tie between him and Julie, so far that turned out to be the closest anyone had gotten to, but then again not even half of the people in their school had managed to battle her. Lucas, Dawn, and Gary were among those people. Dawn was waiting to battle her for when they decided to do another contest battle round, as for Lucas and Gary, they liked to observe first and then make their move, just like when they played chess.

He never understood what was so good about the game, it was mostly a game in their heads, and he was more of an actions kind of guy. He sighed once more, he was close, if only he hadn't gotten distracted by -

"Here," said a voice next to him as a cold can touched his left cheek. He looked at the person holding the can. "You look like you could use a drink," said Dawn with a smile.

And here was his distraction. "Thanks, Dawn," he said as he took the can from her hand and opened it.

"That was a pretty close match," she said as she took a sip of her own drink.

"Yeah," he nodded. He could feel his heart beating against his chest. "I don't know how she did it, but she managed to catch me and Pikachu by surprise with her Gardevoir's teleport at the last minute."

"You'll get her next time," she assured him with a smile.

He grinned back before taking a sip of his orange juice. "Yeah," he said as he handed Pikachu the rest of the drink. "But not to worry, we'll get her next time!"

"That's the spirit," said Dawn as she lifted her hand up slightly above her head. He smiled and high-fived her, he would never forget how small her hand was now in comparison to 6 years ago.

"Say, Dawn?" he said after a while of watching Julie battle another opponent.

"Yeah?" she replied half paying attention.

'You can do this Ash, come on! Just. Ask. Her!'

He clenched and unclenched his hands and wiped them on his pants. "Um…"

'Come on, Ketchum! You've faced Kyogre and Groudon! You can ask the girl you like out on a date!'

"Would…would you like to study t-together later today?" he asked. 'Way to stutter.'

Dawn turned to him with a blank face. "As in just studying," her face started to get red. "O-or as a d-date?"

"Just studying!" he answered too quickly before his head replied. 'No, you dumbass! As a date! DATE! That's the whole reason you're asking her!'

"Oh," she said while nodding a little as she looked down.

"B-but if you want," he swallowed the lump in his throat. "It can be a d-date…"

He swore for the life of him, she was going to be the end of him.

"T-then," she said lifting her head up slowly as her cheeks burned with color. "I-it's a d-date."

"The winner: Miss Juliette Starlight!" they heard Professor Oak declare.

From their seats they could see Julie hugging her beloved Arcanine. Another victory, was there anyone that could beat her?

The bell rang and they stood up to leave. Dawn waited for Julie to get her stuff before walking out with the idol.

"Hey, Julie, mind if I ask you something?" asked Ash as they walked out of the school stadium.

"Go ahead," she answered as she quickly scrolled through her email in her Pokégear.

"How come you're so strong?" he asked straight out as he put his hands behind his head.

She smiled and put the electronic away. "I trained with Sinnoh's Battle Frontier Brains for a while-"

"Wait, you know Barry's dad?" interrupted Ash as Pikachu almost fell from his head.

"Barry's dad?" she asked confused before her eyes lit up. "Oh you mean, Mr. Palmer? Of course! He was the one that asked me if I wanted to train with them!"

"Wow," said Dawn. "How was it?"

"It was hard, they're very demanding," she said as they waited for the rest of their group. "But I guess that's what made the experience even better."

"Did you travel before becoming an idol?" asked Ash innocently.

She shrugged as a brief showed crossed her eyes. "I did every once in a while with my dad. Then I left on my short journey after my 10th birthday, after the gym battles and all, I decided that it was not what I wanted so when I went to the Kalos region with my father and saw all those PokéVision videos that I knew I wanted to be a performer, but not only just me. I wanted to perform with my Pokémon and reach the very top."

"That's sounds very ambitious," said Gary as he stood next to her, his hands in his pockets as Leaf stood on his other side. "But you seem to be almost there."

"Yeah," she agreed. "But I still have a long way to go. I still have to find my sound and my style. It won't mean anything if I get there without being the real me."

From the gates of the school they could hear someone's car honking.

"I guess, that's my ride," said Julie as she waved goodbye to all of them and walked away, her Espeon following right beside her.

"Well, I have to get ready for tonight. I'm going to talk to Grandpa and see if there are certain things I don't have to say," said Gary. "I'll see you guys tomorrow. Bye, babe," he said as he kissed Leaf's cheek before walking back to the school.

"No plans for tonight?" asked Dawn confused.

Leaf shook her head. "No, he has to go to this thing for Professor Oak."

"That's odd," said Ash. "He hates going to that kind of stuff."

"Yeah, I've never seen Gary willingly wanting to go to one since it always lands on the same day," said May.

"It…does?"

"Yeah, didn't you know?" asked Drew confused by her reaction. He then tried to make her feel better when he realized what that meant. "If anything he probably didn't want you to worry."

"Yeah," said Dawn. "He probably just couldn't get out of going to this one."

Leaf cracked a small smile. "Yeah, I guess you're right." She looked in the direction her boyfriend had left in. "I'm going to go cancel that reservation before I forget. I never got a chance to do so in lunch. I'll…see you guys later," she said and walked in the direction of the dorms.

"I'm going to go make sure she's okay," said May as she ran to catch up to Leaf.

The three left standing all had one thought running through their head. What did Gary think he was doing? A beeping stopped their train of thought as Drew looked at his watch.

"I have to get to work," he said before he started walking. "See you guys at dinner."

And then there was two.

"So," Dawn said to Ash as she put her hands behind her back. "You want to go to the library and study?"

"Sure," he answered.

The two walked in the direction of the library in silence, neither knowing what to say to the other. Only one thought crossed their head.

This was going to be interesting.

Not my best chapter, I admit, but I promise the next one will be better!

~Karie