Hello, readers! Today's Monday, meaning today's update day as well!

Thanks for all the reviews for last time! Oh, and meet me at the end for an extended author's note thingy.

Anyways, happy reading!

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon in any way, shape or size!

Painting

Kindergarten

May (5), Drew (5), Gary (5), Paul (5)

May walked into her kindergarten classroom, and immediately noticed the changes. All the round tables were covered in white, plastic sheets, and in the centre of each table, there were some jars of paints, one jar of water, and paintbrushes.

Ms. Kelly, her teacher, smiled at her. "Hello, May. I'm glad to see you didn't forget to bring an extra shirt for painting today." A few days ago, Ms. Kelly had sent home a note saying that they would be painting today. She had asked that everyone bring a big, baggy, old shirt to wear over their clothes, so their clothes don't get paint on them.

After she said good bye to her mother, May hurried over to where her friends were sitting. May was wearing one of her Daddy's old shirts. Gary was wearing a baggy shirt as well, and Paul was wearing one of his brother's old shirts. Drew, however, was wearing a white, long coat that went up to his knees with many buttons.

"Drew," May reminded him, "Ms. Kelly said we had to wear an old shirt so our nice clothes don't get dirty." She didn't want Drew to accidentally get his clean, white coat covered in paint.

"Nanny said it's okay if I get paint on it." Drew assured her. "She said I look just like an artist." May was about to ask who 'Nanny' was, but Gary spoke first.

"It looks like the coat my grandpa wears sometimes." he noted. "I think he said it's a lab coat." Drew looked proud of his 'lab coat'.

"You can paint anything you want." Ms. Kelly instructed as she handed out blank sheets of paper. "Don't forget to clean your paintbrush in the jar of water before using a new colour of paint. If you don't, the colours can get mixed up."

Soon everyone had a piece of paper in front on them and a paintbrush in their hands. When Drew saw all the different colours, he immediately remembered the many different-coloured leaves on the trees. Since the season was autumn, the leaves on the trees that stood around his mansion's yard were now a mix of green, red, yellow, and orange. Drew made up his mind that he was going to paint those trees.

The day before, Gary had been looking through a big book on Pokemon with his grandpa. He really liked a Pokemon called Blastoise, and decided that that was what his picture was going to be.

The jar of bright, red paint caught May's eye. It was her favourite colour, and although she wasn't sure what she was painting, she wanted to use red paint.

Paul wasn't sure of what to make at all. He liked a few different colours, though, and decided to use them.

The class was bustling with activity as everyone painted, with some kids accidentally spilling their jars of paint or water, some getting paint all over their hands and face, and some asking for new paper.

May hummed as her brush moved back and forth as she applied more and more red paint to her sheet. Drew added some more colours, like blue and pink, to his trees, because he thought it looked nice. Gary was proud of his picture of a Blastoise. He thought it looked almost as good as the picture in his grandpa's book. Paul's paper consisted of random strokes of some colours he had picked out, such as blue, purple, grey, and black.

Finally, when everyone was done, Ms. Kelly walked around the classroom, looking at what her students had created. She arrived at May's table.

"Lovely paintings, everyone! May, that's a very nice red picture of a... of a..."

"Red!" May finished her teacher's sentence proudly. "I made red!"

"Yes, I can see that. Very nice. And Drew, those are some very colourful... trees?"

"Yes." Drew was happy his teacher liked them.

"Gary, that is a wonderful picture of a Pokemon."

"It's a Blas-toy." Gary informed her knowledgeably.

"Of course, it looks just like it! And what have you got there, Paul? It has many different colours."

Paul looked at his work thoughtfully for a while before answering. "I don't know."

"Is it an abstract painting?" Ms. Kelly guessed. Paul looked at her blankly, as he was absolutely clueless to what 'abstract' meant.

"An 'abstract painting' is a painting that isn't a picture of a thing." Ms. Kelly explained. "It can just be many different colours, or a design."

"Yes, it's ab-strat." Paul said. He was more interested about learning a new word than getting praise from his teacher.

"Okay then!" Ms. Kelly clapped her hands. "I'm going to take everyone's paintings and put them over there to dry." She pointed to a counter that was covered in a white sheet, and was along the window. "No one is allowed to touch them until they are dry. Then, I am going to call everyone up table by table to go to the washroom to clean up."

Ms. Kelly walked around, transferring the paintings to their new spot after writing the artists' names on them using a black marker. She had to be extra careful not to rip May's paper, because it was completely soaked in red paint.

After she was done that, she began calling her students table by table to go to the washroom with her to wash up. May's table would be the last to go, so the four friends waited patiently.

"What are you doing?" Gary had noticed what May was up to. She was using her paintbrush to cover her hand in red paint.

"I'm making it pretty!" May showed him her work. "Look, now I even have nail polish like Mommy!" She looked up at her friends, seeing their expressions at her beautiful hand-painting. She then noticed Drew's coat.

"Drew, look at your lab coat! It's so pretty!" Drew looked down at his coat. It was now covered in small splashes of different-coloured paint. May looked at it thoughtfully.

"Can I make something on it?" she asked. Drew's nanny had said it was okay if Drew got paint on it, so he said yes.

May used her paintbrush to make a small happy face on his shoulder. She place her other hand, the one covered in paint, on Drew's coat to steady herself as she made it.

"There!" She moved back to observe the happy face she had made. She giggled when she saw something else. "Drew, my hand is on your lab coat!" And sure enough, there was a red hand print that was added to his coat's design. Gary eyed it admiringly.

"I wanna make one too!" He dipped his hand in blue paint and pressed it onto Drew's coat as well.

"I'm gonna do a green one." Drew stated as he added on a green hand print. Normally, he'd be against getting himself dirty or messy, but this looked like fun!

"You do one too, Paul!" May chirped. He didn't really want to cover his hand in paint, but he decided to anyway, and soon a purple hand print was also visible.

"Okay, May, Drew, Gary, and Paul, it is your turn now." Ms. Kelly called them. The four children obeyed as they walked up to their teacher.

"Look!" May pointed at Drew's coat, giggling. "We put our hand-prints on him!"

"Wow, that's a very creative idea!" Ms. Kelly was impressed. "All four of you put your hand prints on there?"

"Yes!" Gary confirmed. "Mine is the blue one, May's is the red one, Drew's is the green one, and Paul's in the purple one."

Ms. Kelly then addressed Drew. "Drew, is it okay if I write on it?"

Drew thought for a second. "Okay." he answered.

Later, when the students had all washed their hands and were no longer wearing their painting-shirts over their clothes, Ms. Kelly took Drew's coat.

"Can I give it back to you tomorrow?" she asked. "I want to keep it here with all the other paintings until it dries." Drew agreed.

The next day, after class was over, and everyone's parents came to pick up their children, Ms. Kelly told everyone that they were allowed to take their paintings home now.

May excitedly showed hers to her mother. "It's for you!" She handed it to her.

"Oh, darling, it's lovely!" Caroline complimented.

"Look, Grandpa!" Gary showed his to his grandpa. "I made Blas-toy!"

"And excellently, too!" his grandpa marveled, winking at his grandson. "Maybe I should just have you make my Pokemon books!" Gary thought so too.

"Wow, this is great, Paul!" Reggie, who had come to pick up his brother, admired the paper Paul had handed to him. "Err, what is it?"

"It's ab-strat." Paul informed him with a serious look on his face.

Drew's butler had come to pick him up. Drew showed him what he had painted.

"Very nice, Young Master Andrew." the butler said, trying to show more expression on his face than usual.

"Oh, and Drew?" Ms. Kelly walked up to him. "Here is your coat."

Drew held the coat up so he could see everything that was on it. May, Gary, and Paul came to admire it too.

The originally white coat had colourful splatters of paint all over the front. Amongst the splatters were four hand prints, and each had the name of the owner below it in black marker, written by Ms. Kelly. On the back of the coat, the words 'Kindergarten Friends' were written, also in black marker.

The four friends observed the masterpiece for a moment. It was something, Drew decided, that he would keep forever.

Another day at kindergarten. Anyone else miss those good old days?

Last chapter, I asked if I should add Iris, Trip, Clemont and Serena into the main eight group. I've made my decision.
First, I want to thank everyone for their suggestions (actually, I want to thank you even if you didn't review or give suggestions. Just the fact that people read this makes me happy! :3).
So, my decision? Don't add them into the main eight group. To be honest, I was kind of against it myself, but I wanted to know what you guys thought before I gave my opinion. I like the eight-group just the way it is, and personally, when there are too many main characters in a story, I find it hard to keep track of them.
However, I still think they deserve a bigger role than minor characters. So I'm going to take your guys' advice and make them recurring/ side characters. So they might appear in some chapters once in a while (maybe not very often, though) and, in those chapters, they're going to have a bigger role than just a line or an appearance. So, how does that sound?

Oh, and I might (not sure) add in grade five. The only reason I'm mentioning this is because before, I said my plan was to only make up to grade four. But I think grade five wouldn't be too bad. Not that important, though. Moving on...

A guest reviewer asked me a question that I was expecting to be asked for a while now:
Will there be any ships?
Okay, well, here is the thing: I'm actually not really into romance. I know there is a lot of shipping with the characters I'm using, but the reason I'm using them is not only because they seem to be the most popular anime characters for fanfiction, but also because I find them the most interesting to work with. In this fanfic, I wanted to make the main focus their bond and friendship. I guess you, as the reader, can take their interactions any way you like, but I don't have any plans to make very obvious shipping. Although, I do like to reflect off the anime (I showed Brianna's admiration for Drew last chapter, not really as a shipping thing, but more as a reference to the anime).
Sorry if I disappointed anyone.

Wow, that was a pretty long author's note. Whew!

Anyways, thanks for reading! See you next time!

Bye bye for now! And have a smiling day! :)