Ahem… Hi everyone. Ehehe… haven't seen you guys in a while, huh? ('In a while' is an understatement.)

I have excuses- cough cough - I mean, reasons! I'll just skip to the main ones, which were that my Wi-Fi went out for a long time, and by the time I could re-access it, I had school's burden to carry. And trust me, it's heavy! But hey, school's going to end somewhere in June, so in about one and a half months, meaning I'll hopefully get more time to write during the summer.

Thanks for being patient, everyone, and sorry for disappearing for so long. So anyways...

I decided to do something a bit different for this chapter. I'm going to try to make it in the first person! It's not going to be from the point of view from any of the main eight, though, but rather someone observing them. You'll see.

jg13145 asked for the explanation for Drew's cockiness, and the idea I got for this chapter, I realized a guest reviewer had asked for a chapter on that topic. So in a way, I combined the two ideas together, and here is the result!

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

Pizza Night at Drew's

(Summer after) Grade Four

Drew (10), May (10), Ash (10), Misty (10), Paul (10), Dawn (10), Leaf (10), Gary (10)

Hello. My name is Alfred Alastair Maximus. Hm? The name does not strike you as familiar? Well, that doesn't surprise me, as while I am around most of the time, I often go unnoticed. Or, perhaps, you just have not heard my name being said before, as I am quite certain you must have noted me at some point.

I, Alfred Alastair Maximus, am young Master Andrew's butler.

Being a butler is not as simple as you may think, especially when your boss is currently a ten-year-old boy who is slowly growing more and more independent (meaning he thinks he can manage to do everything on his own), and, to a certain degree, rebellious.

Hm, perhaps rebellious is not the right word. Haughty? Arrogant, maybe? That, combined with his growing independence, makes him much more prone to want to go against what I say. Which is probably why the word 'rebellious' comes to mind.

The perfect example of his cockier attitude would be that night he invited his friends over for a pizza party, when I could easily take note of his increased arrogance since, let's say, kindergarten. Now, while I do not mind most of his friends, there are a few that I am not particularly fond of. And, from what I've seen, these few have not been a very good influence on the young master. I highly suspect that they have something to do with the shift in his attitude. Not that I have a say in it.

And so, this pizza night. I, being Andrew's butler, was made to order multiple different kinds of pizza. Which, might I add, was not an easy task, what, with the constant nagging of the young boy, as he told me exactly which toppings he wanted, and continuously changed his mind as he remembered that a friend would or wouldn't like one of the choices.

"A cheese pizza, then, Master Andrew?" I said to him as I held the phone to my ear. We had already decided on the pizzas beforehand, but Andrew had suddenly been having second thoughts while I was ordering. I could hear the man who was taking our order becoming impatient, since we were taking such a long time. I felt his pain.

Andrew was leaning against the wall beside me, his arms folded, and a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Yeah, I guess," he said. "You know, maybe you could have olives on the fourth one we're ordering."

"Could we have olives on the fourth pizza-," I began saying into the phone.

"Actually, no," Andrew interrupted. "Or maybe... okay, yeah, olives, and no tomatoes."

"As I was saying, olives, but no-"

"You know, tomatoes wouldn't be too bad. Hm, guess that's a yes to tomatoes, then. How about some peppers as well? But wait... Misty doesn't like peppers, though, does she?"

And we went on like that for the next half hour. Or maybe it was a full hour? One thing I have learned during my time as Andrew's butler is how to be very patient.

It wasn't that he was being impolite at any time. To tell you the truth, he always seemed polite and calm when by himself. It was only when he was around others did his arrogance emerge. But nevertheless, his requests were sometimes very... how should I put this? Well, they seemed to demand too much at times. But with the stoic demeanor I always had to retain, I don't think he ever realized how much of a trouble he sometimes was.

And so came the time for his friends to arrive. They all came one by one, and soon, the Hayden residence included seven more ten-year-olds than it usually did.

"Wow! I can never get over how huge your mansion is!" exclaimed Dawn, Andrew's blue-haired friend. "If I lived in a place like this, I don't know what I'd do!" Dawn was a bubbly girl with good manners and tidy habits. I had to say, she was probably one of the friends that received my full approval.

"Yeah, well," Andrew flipped his hair, smirking, "you get used to it." See? I told you his cocky attitude starts up whenever he's around friends.

"Yeah, Drew, you're so lucky, living here!" Ash marvelled. Ash was a nice young boy most of the time, although he did have his dense moments. Ever since his tenth birthday, he's always had a Pikachu perched on his shoulder whenever possible.

"Pika pika!" said Ash's Pikachu, probably agreeing with him.

"So is the pizza here yet?" May asked excitedly. May was one of Andrew's earliest friends, back from when he was in kindergarten. She was a sweet girl, although she could get riled up, and was clumsy, and a little clueless sometimes.

I didn't really have anything against May, but one of the few I did was the fact that Andrew always said she adored red roses, which was the reason that every year for her birthday, he would give her a bouquet along with whatever other gift he bought her. Doesn't sound too bad? Think again. He insists on giving her freshly-picked flowers from the thorny rosebushes in his mansion's gardens. Guess who has to pick and then de-thorn those roses.

"Yeah, the pizzas!" Ash chimed in.

"You guys, always thinking about food…" Misty muttered, voicing my thoughts. Misty was a hotheaded young girl, with a quick temper, but she seemed fine most of the time.

"Well, it is a pizza party. Can't have a pizza party without the pizza!" Leaf chirped. Leaf was one of the friends I was wary of, but only mildly so. She was an energetic, clever girl, but at the same time, her eyes sometimes held the shine of mischief, something that made me keep an eye on her. But it was really Andrew's final two friends I had to watch out for.

"Well, the pizza guy said he's going to deliver them in about an hour." Andrew shrugged. "Don't know why it's taking so long. I only ordered about six."

"Seven, Master Andrew," I corrected. I knew because, after all, I was the one who had ordered them.

"Seven? You better have one with super-spicy peppers as well! Unless, of course, you're too scared to try a spicy pizza!" That was Gary, a clever, mischievous, egotistical boy, whom I didn't particularly like. He spent his time pulling pranks, bullying his friends (usually Ash) into doing something he wanted them to do, and just causing mischief in general.

"Yes, I did order a spicy one, as a matter of fact!" Andrew said irritatedly. "I almost didn't, because I know Misty doesn't like peppers, but then I decided to order a separate pepper-less pizza as well!"

Hm. I always noticed how Andrew had lately started thinking ahead. It was a good thing, as he always thought of what one friend would and wouldn't like, but at the same time, I noted how he would try to avoid being picked on by Gary. Not that Gary was especially mean or anything, but he had a habit of pressuring him into doing things he'd rather not do. I guess part of the reason Andrew had become so cocky was because he was trying to keep himself up at Gary's level, so he wouldn't seem soft in front of him. And Gary wasn't exactly the best of influences...

"I bet you won't be able to eat it!" Gary taunted.

"Oh, we'll see about that!" Andrew said, flipping his hair. "Get ready to lose that bet!"

There was a scoff, coming from Paul. Paul, like Gary, was a boy I preferred to distance myself from. I saw him sometimes as Gary's partner in crime, more so when he was younger, though. Somehow, he was slowly becoming much quieter, and less prone to starting up shenanigans. Andrew had told me a while back that he was becoming much more focused on training for when he became a trainer than anything else, so maybe that was the reason. Needless to say, I still exercised caution.

"What?" Andrew said defensively, turning to his purple-haired friend. "I can eat spicy food!"

"Come on, guys, let's go do something while we wait," Misty spoke up, probably to avoid an oncoming argument on whether or not Andrew could handle anything spicy.

Eventually, they decided on watching a movie, a harmless activity that I approved of, as all they had to do was sit and stare at a screen. However, I did get the feeling that this made my job easier, and that was something that never happened. Meaning I knew something would go wrong at some point.

And my prediction was accurate. It seemed choosing which movie to watch was not as easy as one would think.

"Oh, oh! This one!" May said, picking up one of the choices. "I've wanted to watch it for so long!"

"Hey, that's The Meowth and the Purrloin! I watched it before!" Dawn exclaimed. "I love it so much! The Meowth prince, the Purrloin thief he falls in love with; it's so romantic!" Both girls sighed dreamily.

"That one?" Gary scoffed. "No way! What I want to watch is this!"

"Okay, I'm with you on not watching the love-story one," said Misty, "but there is no way I'm watching Ursaring's Claws! I'm not scared of watching horror, but I've heard that one's nothing but bloody chaos."

"Come on, guys, let's just watch something like, oh, I don't know..." Ash scanned through the selection, and picked one up, "this one! Torterra Mountain! It's about a bunch of people who are trying to prove a legend is true, so they go to a mountain called Torterra Mountain, and, uh, try to prove the legend is true, I think. I heard it's really good!"

"Why not watch Ursaring's Claws?" Andrew teased. "Too afraid?"

I raised an eyebrow. This was exactly the kind of attitude that had sprung up in Andrew lately. Maybe it came from the constant teasing from Gary and Paul, who used to say Andrew wasn't very tough. They really had rubbed off on him, hadn't they? Of course, I didn't say anything.

"No!" Ash protested. "I just... Everyone might not like it, so it might be best if we all watch something everyone would like!"

"Pika!" Pikachu agreed.

After a few more arguments, they finally settled on a movie Leaf had decided on, one called Serven and Catty. From what I'd heard, it was about a Servine, Serven, who teamed up with a Skitty named Catty to defeat villains, or something along those lines. Just as it was starting, however, the bell rang.

"The pizza might be here!" Andrew said, immediately exciting his friends. They all rushed to the dining room, abandoning the television.

After paying the delivery boy, I had to carry all seven pizzas to the table. Everything else was pretty much ready, so all I had to do was open up the boxes, and allow the wave of pizza scent to conquer the room. And my uniform. I would probably smell like pizza for days.

"Hey, can you get us more plates?" Andrew asked me. "We're short a couple. We need two more. "

"Right away, young master," I said, leaving the room, heading for the kitchen. One of the maids must have forgotten to put the right number of plates when setting the table.

I retrieved the plates from an apologetic maid, and began heading back. Before I even reached the dining room, where Andrew and his friends were, I sped up, as I heard something that was probably a sign that my job had to increase in difficulty. It sounded as if some of the kids were arguing loudly. I finally made it to my destination, and what I saw made me freeze.

There were puddles of spilled juice, as well as a full, sad-looking upturned pizza on the floor. A huge bottle of soda pop was lying on its side on the tabletop, with a tiny stream of the soft drink pouring out from the half-opened bottle cap. The kids? They all were yelling at one another. How had all of this occurred in the two minutes I wasn't there?

"Pika! Pikachu pika pika! Pikachu!" Ash's Pikachu was saying angrily at Gary.

"Yeah, what Pikachu said!" Ash shouted in equal fury.

"I don't even know what your electric mouse said!" Gary yelled back.

"Guys, stop fighting right now, or I'll make you! I brought Starmie with me, just for your information!" Misty looked at the both of them threateningly.

"Yeah, come on guys!" Dawn chimed in. "You two already ruined one of the pizzas!"

"The poor pizza!" May sobbed. "Rest in peaceful pieces!"

"Gee, April, getting so worked up about one little pizza," Andrew said, smirking, causing May's temper to flare.

"You, obviously, have no idea how much I value my pizzas, Mr. Hayden!" she yelled at him.

Meanwhile, Leaf was calmly eating her slice of pizza, watching the scene with an almost invisible smirk on her face (had she been the cause of this?), and Paul was protectively holding his glass of orange juice in his hand instead of placing it on the table, lest it end up fallen like the other glasses.

"M-master Andrew!" I finally managed to say aloud, grabbing everyone's attention. "What is the meaning of this?"

Immediately, the group ceased its squabbling, trading the furious atmosphere for a very guilty one.

"Oh," Andrew said, looking ashamed. "Well, you see, Gary-"

"Hey, it wasn't me!" Gary interrupted. "Ash just began blaming me for no reason!"

"Who else could it be? Only you would do something like that!" Ash accused.

"The poor pizza! If you two hadn't been fighting, it wouldn't have ended like this!" May howled.

"May, just stop," Misty said, growing irritated at her wailing.

"Guys, can't we just all forget about that, and just-" Dawn tried to say. But her words were quickly lost within the sound of Paul's raised voice.

"ENOUGH!" he bellowed. His friends fell silent as he stood up, his eyes enraged. "Be quiet, all of you! Do you even realize what you guys are doing?"

He gestured to the chaotic table. To be honest, I was surprised that he had noticed the mess they had made, and wanted to prevent the situation from getting worse.

"You see that?" He pointed at the spilled soda pop on the table. "You see it? That is a puddle of wasted soda pop! Do you realize that that could have been the fate of the orange juice?"

Oh. Right. So it actually turned out that he wasn't worried about the mess that had been made; rather, he didn't want the others to accidentally cause his favourite drink to go to waste. Andrew and his friends looked as though they couldn't care less about the juice, and were more concerned about the fact that their pizza party was being ruined, but they didn't dare say anything to oppose Paul's words, as his glare kept them all silent.

Finally, Leaf spoke. "You know, guys, Paul's right. We shouldn't fight over some small silly thing! Come on, let's clean this up."

"But Gary-" Ash began.

"Don't worry, Ash, Gary does that kind of stuff all the time. You can let it go, right?" Leaf said casually. Gary looked like he was about to protest, but a few words from Leaf telling him to forget about it, and he became moodily quiet.

I couldn't help feel a bit suspicious of that green-eyed girl. Leaf had been acting perfectly calm and nonchalant for the span of the whole situation, as if the fight hadn't bothered her. In fact, if anything, she gave me the impression that she had been enjoying the little blowup. I'll probably never know the truth behind it, and it didn't look like I would find out about the basis of the fight either (since they had decided to let it go), but nevertheless, I knew I wouldn't be able to shake the suspicion that Leaf might have had something to do with it.

"We can clean this up," Dawn offered in a small voice. I sighed.

"No, I'll take care of it," I said. "Master Andrew, you and your friends can go eat while watching your movie. Just don't cause any more messes."

The eight of them did exactly as I told them. I, on the other hand, made an attempt to clean up the mess myself, before calling a maid or two for reinforcements. After that, I went to see whether the eight were behaving or not. They were, fortunately. They were watching the movie while munching on their pizza slices, and it seemed everything was going on perfectly without trouble. Good.

"No! Don't do it!" I heard May whisper, her eyes glued to the screen in suspense.

"You seriously are into this movie, aren't you?" Andrew whispered to her, smirking.

"It's a good movie!" May whispered back loudly.

"Shh! Keep it down! We're trying to watch!" Misty said, struggling to keep her voice low.

"Drew keeps bothering me!" May claimed.

"I only said one thing!" Andrew insisted.

"Sshh!" It was Dawn this time. I braced myself for any further quarreling, but for once, it actually didn't come. They were all much more focused on the show they were watching. Huh, must be a good movie.

Finally, the movie ended, and the eight got up, stretching, and chatting about how they liked it. Suddenly, Gary spoke up.

"Hey Drew," he said, grinning, "didn't you say you were going to eat the spicy pizza too?"

"Oh, right," Drew said calmly. "Yeah, I can do that."

"It's nearly time to leave, and I want to prove you wrong, so you might as well do it now!"

"With pleasure."

They all gathered around as Andrew took a slice from the spicy, pepper-covered pizza. It was the pizza that had the most left over, so searching for remaining bits was not a problem.

Slowly, lifting it to his mouth, Andrew took a large bite, and chewed. After swallowing, he took another. There was disappointment on Gary's face on how easily his friend was finishing the slice, but I could see signs that clearly showed it was taking every ounce of Andrew's strength to not dive for a glass of water. Finally, he swallowed the last bite, and wiped his hands on a napkin.

"See? Easy. It was really good," Andrew said nonchalantly, flipping his hair, a smirk on his face. "I mean, it might have been too spicy for you to handle, Gary, but for me, it was... meh."

Gary's eyes narrowed. "Give me that!" he ordered Leaf, pointing at another slice, which she eagerly handed to him. Immediately, he shoved it into his mouth, and his eyes widened.

"N-no... trouble at all!" he choked out, trying to continue eating. Finally, he swallowed the last bit, and said, "I need to wash my hands..." A pretty feeble excuse for him to abandon his position to run off and wash his mouth of the spiciness.

While everyone was distracted by all of this, Andrew frantically turned to me, gesturing for me to get him something to drink. I understood, and left for a minute and came back the next with a small glass of milk (since milk works better than water when nullifying spice). His friends were still distracted by something else at the moment, making Andrew feel free to rapidly chug down the drink I had brought, wipe his mouth, and then calmly walk back up to the group.

"Gary can't do something he thought I wouldn't be able to do, huh?" Andrew said smugly. Even though I knew that in truth, he had cheated by drinking milk to prevent himself from having his mouth feel like it was on fire.

"Hey, can I have some?" May took a sliced, and wolfed it down with no trouble at all. "Hey, you were right, Drew, this is great!" she said. "Drew, come on, have another!"

"Oh, no thanks, July," Drew said. "I'm too full."

"That means I get to have some!" Ash exclaimed. But he stopped quickly to grab a drink when he accidentally bit into a small piece of Tamato berry. Leaf joined in too, and seemed fine as well. However, it didn't appear she particularly liked the flavour.

A short while later, after Gary had returned, the time to leave came round. One by one, all of Andrew's friends left, and soon, we were back to only one ten-year-old in the Hayden residence. One who was evidently tired, since it was late now.

"That was fun," Andrew said yawning. "But I think I'll go to bed now."

And thus, I followed him to his room, not looking forward to the cleaning-up I would have to do afterwards.

Chapter 46: done!

Sorry again for the super-late update everyone. But like I said, school's becoming very busy, and it's hard to find time to write. So my updates probably aren't going to be once a week anymore. Well, at least for now. When school ends, hopefully, I'll get more writing time! In other words, don't expect immediate updates.

Thanks for reading!

Bye bye for now! Have a superb day, and smile all the way! :)