Hey everyone! New chapter up just because I got such a good response!

Warnings: Drug use and questionable language

Chapter Two: Shady Like a Tree

The first thing May noticed upon walking out of her apartment at nine o'clock in the morning was that Boston weather wasn't quite as hot as Arizona.

It was actually kind of nice.

The sun was out but it wasn't beating down on her like a slave driver. There was a pleasant breeze that wasn't too chilly but rather fanned her gently and kept her from sweating. She supposed it was probably about seventy-five degrees out and she was relieved that she didn't even need the light jacket she had been planning to wear, unfamiliar with the weather patterns as she was up here.

She was on the first floor and had a nice little porch area that she could see herself decorating with a few plants and whatnot. She faced a small courtyard with tall maple trees dotting the landscape and what appeared to be freshly manicured lawns between the two sidewalks. The sky was a pristine blue and she could see it clearly after stepping out from under the awning of her porch.

She was on the corner of her building with a large sidewalk between her apartment and the next, so she only had one neighbor—who she realized was sitting outside on his own little porch in an outdoor canvas chair, smoking a cigarette. The smell was what caught her attention and she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye.

He was a rather big man, dwarfing the chair he was sitting it. At a glance, he was probably three or four inches over six feet tall, but he wasn't gangly or awkward with his height. He had large, muscled arms that were accentuated almost too much as he was wearing only a wife-beater and they were covered in what appeared to be tribal tattoos or some such. His long legs were crossed casually but also appeared to be just a muscled as the rest of him through the tight jeans. A blue bandana covered his head, matching his piercing blue eyes, and his lower jaw was covered in grizzle.

He snorted suddenly, making eye contact with her, and May realized she had been staring. Scrambling to save face, she quickly turned and said, "Hi! I'm your new next door neighbor! My name is May."

The look he gave her was appraising and a little skeptical. "New neighbor, eh?" May realized that he had a deep, baritone voice and it sent up a red flag in her head, but she ignored it for the sake of not making an idiot out of herself. The man stood and May realized that he definitely towered over her five-foot-six form. "Archie." He offered his hand and May shook it, not surprised when her hand was completely covered by his.

The handshake was swift and to the point. Archie took a long drag off his cigarette and, after exhaling, asked, "Here for college?"

May discreetly covered her distaste for the foul smoke in her face by smiling and answered, "Yeah. I'm going to be a freshman at Harvard."

"Hn," he grunted, taking one last drag off the cigarette before dropping it, stomping on it with a booted foot, and then tossing it into a small pot that she assumed was originally meant for plants and had been turned into an oversized ashtray. It was over halfway full, too. "Guess this place was the cheapest thing you found?"

May sagged a little. "Yeah…" She was then reminded of the shouting and apparent violence from last night. She glanced at the metal pole that was to her left, supporting the awning. That was probably what the younger guy had been slammed against. From its thickness, she could only assume it was the collision with his head that would make it ring like it had.

"Cambridge ain't a cheap place to live," Archie told her as he stuffed his hands into his pockets. "It's probably too late to move, but I figure I'll tell you anyway—this area of town is infested with thugs and gang members. They call themselves Team Aqua. Not people you wanna get involved with, you hear me?"

May felt her stomach drop, but steadfastly did not allow her discomfort to reflect on her face. "It'll be okay," she said, more to herself than to him. "My dad insisted I take self-defense classes when I turned sixteen and I've been keeping up with them. I should be able to defend myself well enough."

Archie eyed her and then laughed, a deep, hearty chuckle. "Well, then, you'll do okay. Probably wanna wear a hood, though, to cover your pretty face." He smirked at her.

May flushed, not sure if she was pleased or creeped out by the compliment. Archie was handsome enough, but not quite her type. She liked slightly more feminine men and Archie was the epitome of masculinity. Of course, not in a bad way; she could see many women flocking to him. He simply oozed strength and power. Although that kind of thing wasn't necessarily what she was into, she couldn't deny the appeal.

"Haha, yeah…" she replied weakly. For a quick and potentially helpful change of discussion, she asked, "Do you know of any places that might have a job opening? I'm a little late so I know that the pickings will be slim, but I really need a job."

"Huh." Archie scratched his chin contemplatively. "All I know is that you should definitely stay away from Maxine's Bakery," he told her, laughing a little to himself at a joke she didn't catch. "Not a good place to work for someone like you."

May wasn't quite sure why a bakery would be a bad place for 'someone like her' to work, but she decided that she could well enough heed his advice. Unless, of course, it was the only place that had an opening—then she would have no other choice. Her plan to stay at Harvard didn't work out financially if she didn't have a job.

"Thanks for the warning," she said with a smile. "I should probably get going, though. You have a nice day."

Archie grunted in response and nodded in a way that probably meant he was returning the nicety before turning and heading back into his apartment. May sighed once he was gone and began to walk towards the bus stop. Her purse was safely tucked under her shoulder and inside was a map. She decided that she would search for places along her bus route first, then go to more obscure areas if that didn't work out.

She headed out.

xXx

Maxie's Bakery…was that the place she wasn't supposed to work at, or was there also another bakery with a very similar name? May wasn't sure. However, any "Now Hiring" sign that didn't have an big black X on it was a plus to her.

She had spent the last three hours scouring the streets for a job—she had started on Campbell and Main and simply walked down the long road, which had stores on both sides and seemed to be a commercial area for small businesses. May was a little surprised, although she supposed she shouldn't have been. Of course a college town would have lots of local businesses—they had plenty of potential customers and employees. Coffee shops seemed to be a big thing around here.

Unfortunately, when she did happen to come across sign that said "Now Hiring", it was usually struck through with an X, as if the owner couldn't be bothered to take down the sign once his staffing was complete. May soon came to hate those pieces of paper.

The first place she found was a corner mart. She took the time to fill out an application, and although they said they would accept it for review, she was informed that there were a lot of people ahead of her who had already applied. May had glanced down at the job experience of her application where it was dismally blank and knew immediately that she wouldn't be getting this job. Still, she gave them the form on the off chance she got lucky and headed out to apply elsewhere.

She filled out applications at two different coffee shops, gave her number to an Indian man at a gas pump, and even applied at McDonald's, which she had never thought she would do.

At long last she had come across a pizza parlor with "Now Hiring" painted in big, bold letters across the inside of the glass window and May thought her salvation had come. However, when she walked inside, they told her that they weren't actually hiring anymore—they just hadn't had the time to wash the paint off. May had filled out an application anyway, just in case.

And now she had stumbled upon Maxie's Bakery. She was tired, she was hungry, and she was in a most foul mood, but she couldn't give up the search just yet. She took a moment to compose herself outside the store, inspecting her potential workplace.

The exterior of the building was clean and orderly, the large glass windows that were the front walls free of smudges and the like. Through the windows she could see rows upon rows of pastries and the delicious smell of freshly baked bread was permeating the air around the store. May looked once again to the "Now Hiring" sign pasted onto the interior of the window. The whole place seemed inviting enough and the smell of bread from scratch was something that May couldn't pass up. Inwardly, she hoped she got this job. How nice would it be to work in a place that smelled like cookies and cupcakes and warm bread all the time?

When she pushed the door open, a little bell tinkled. The bakery smelled even better on the inside and the atmosphere was warm and inviting. The floor was beige tile and the walls painted a light red—definitely not pink, but also not quite a true red, either.

A young man with stunningly orange hair stood at the counter. "Can I help you?" he asked politely. She noticed that he was wearing all red and boy, did that clash with his hair. May wondered if that was his uniform or if he really just had bad taste in color coordination.

"Hi," May started, "I saw that you're hiring?"

The boy's smile immediately dropped. "Oh." He looked at her strangely for a moment. "Well…"

May's shoulders slumped in immediate disappointment, but just then, a tall brunette walked out from the back and called, "Yes! We're hiring!"

The ginger-haired boy flinched and looked over his shoulder guiltily. An indiscernible look passed between the two and the boy turned back with a large smile on his face and nodded. "Yeah, we're hiring. Are you here to apply?"

May nodded, glancing from the brunette to the boy uncertainly. Were they or were they not hiring? Despite their odd behavior, she decided that a job was a job. "Yeah, I am. Do you have an application or something I can fill out?"

The brunette had gone back through the door and now reentered the front room with a basket of steaming buns that had quite obviously just come out of the oven. May noticed that she, too, wore all red. Must be a uniform thing. "Nah, we don't do stuff like that here. Everything's really relaxed and all." She turned to the boy with a warning look. "Tim, go get the boss."

Tim blanched before nodding quickly and then darted off through the door the girl had just come through. As she began bagging the buns, a dozen to a bag, she turned to May. "Name's Cassie. What's yours?"

"I'm May," May told her. While she was a bit suspicious of Tim, Cassie seemed friendly enough and she wouldn't mind making a friend on her job hunt, even if she didn't end up working at the bakery. "What are those?" She had never seen bread like that before.

"Oh, they're a special kind of bolillo." Cassie popped her gum. "The boss is pretty well traveled, so he brought the recipe back up here when he started the store."

"Oh, cool," May replied, staring at the oddly shaped buns. Whatever made them special definitely made them special. They smelled like nothing May had ever experienced, but it was delicious nonetheless. She noticed acutely that her mouth was watering.

Tim came back and poked his head out the "Staff Only" door. "Boss'll see you now."

May took a deep breath, smoothed out her shirt, and then walked around the display case of donuts before following Tim to the back.

They weaved through a large kitchen, past a break room, and down the hall to what appeared to be a cozy little office. Tim knocked, opened the door, and then opened the door for her so she could enter.

'Boss' was an extremely thin man with impossibly bright red hair and glasses. His expression was calm and collected and his skin was deathly pale in a way that gave May the impression he didn't see much sunlight.

He stood as the door closed. He smiled pleasantly, but it didn't seem like his face was used to the facial expression because the motion seemed forced. "Hello, I'm Maxie. And you are?"

"May," she replied. May noticed that, yet again, someone was wearing all red, although it appeared to be a little more formal than the aprons that Tim and Cassie had been wearing. They shook hands briefly before Maxie sat and motioned for her to do the same. "I came here because I saw that you're still hiring?"

Maxie nodded. "Yes…unfortunately, our last employee had something of an…accident."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," she said slowly. Somehow, the way Maxie had stressed the word 'accident' made it sound like not so much of one. She decided that she'd think about that later. Much later.

He nodded in agreement. "Anyways. Are you here for college?"

"Yes. I just moved here from Littleroot, Arizona and I'm about to be a freshman at Harvard."

Something lit up in Maxie's eyes that unsettled her. Perhaps it was how satisfied he was to hear that…she was from out of state? It certainly couldn't be that it was because she was going to college. From what May had seen, most of the people who worked in this area were also college students.

"Oh, Littleroot?" Maxie asked. Yes, he was definitely happy that she was from out of state, that was certain. "I've heard of it. Not a very big town, though, right?"

"No, not at all," May answered. "But I'm not a small town girl, so this is much nicer."

"Hm, I see. Now, what job experience do you have?"

"Very little," May said. "I've done volunteer work, but…"

"No worries," Maxie assured her with another one of the forced smiles. "I'm sure you've use a kitchen before?"

May laughed. "Of course."

"Then you'll do fine. Now, I'm going to ask you a few questions to see if you'll fit in around here…"

xXx

An hour later, May walked out of Maxie's Bakery with a free sandwich made from fresh bread and a new job. She was a little surprised at how well it had gone, given that so many other places had been duds, but May supposed that it only took one buyer to sell the house, or in this case, only one store to hire her. With a little spring in her step, she began the walk back to the bus stop and swiped open her phone to call her mother to give her the good news.

They talked for a bit, but when the bus came it was noisy and crowded, so May had to hang up the phone. She was glad to see that it was only one fifteen-minute bus trip from the stop outside of her new job back to her apartment. When she got off the bus, she realized that she had some grocery shopping to do and cursed. Grocery shopping tomorrow, take out now.

As she walked back towards her apartment, she noticed two men and a woman wearing blue bandanas standing in the courtyard, about thirty feet out from her unit. Two of them were passing back and forth something that was clearly not a cigarette.

May frowned to herself and remembered Archie's words. 'This area of town is infested with thugs and gang members.' Keeping that in mind, she gave them a wide berth and pointedly avoided eye contact. Still, she couldn't help but overhear a bit of their conversation.

"…Boss kicked Trent's ass last night. Fucked up the whole thing and then went and sassed him. Stupid fucker," the only female was saying.

"The little bitch deserved it," one of the men said. "I knew he was a snitch. Boss gave it to 'im real good."

"Nobody fucks with Boss," the third member agreed breathily as he exhaled the smoke from the joint. At this point, May had safely made it to her door, blissfully undetected, and slipped inside. Once she was inside, she sighed and leaned back against the door heavily. She obviously lived in a worse area of town than she thought, even after Archie's warning. Whoever "Boss" was, she sure hoped she didn't encounter him. He seemed like a pretty terrible person in her opinion. However, if she kept to herself and didn't make a fuss, she was sure she'd never have to deal with such an unpleasant experience.

Feeling in the mood for Chinese, May looked up some menus online. The ones nearby were cheap, but didn't do delivery, and May didn't think she blamed them after seeing those people outside. They had all had a rough, rugged edge to them that screamed to normal people 'dangerous'. May could only guess that at least one of the three lived in this apartment if they were hanging out here. Then again, smoking weed in public? Who was stupid enough to do that? Nonetheless, May decided that she was going to have to settle for pizza because she didn't want to go out to pick up food now that the sun was setting. She might not be able to move to another part of the city, but she would keep Archie's words in mind.

May sighed and looked up the number for the pizza parlor she had last night. At least she had a job, right?

So, to address reviews: a big Thank You to Jetraven Ex, F. Flotsam, mitzi, and Raeberry Swirl. You guys are awesome!

As for me, I'd definitely choose Team Aqua. Archie is awesome and I'm all for Pokemon, although I'm a bit dubious about their methods.

Mitzi - if you can, PM me! I want to know as much about Massachusetts as I can, because I've never even been there. Thanks so much!

Question: If you could be any Pokemon in the Generation III, which one would you be?

Thanks for reading!