Helloooo all you wonderful readers!

Wow, it took me a long time to update. Was hoping to get a chapter done sooner, but oh well. Anyways, happy reading!

Today's topic was suggested long ago by a guest reviewer!

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

Spaceship

Kindergarten

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

There were boxes. Lots of boxes.

May couldn't keep her eyes off them.

When she'd arrived at her kindergarten class today, the large cardboard boxes stacked against the wall in a corner had caught her attention immediately. Ms. Kelly had explained to everyone that she'd ordered some extra supplies and toys for the classroom - for art, and for playtime - but they hadn't arrived until this morning. There hadn't been time to get rid of the boxes after she'd emptied them, but she would make sure they were gone by tomorrow.

Throughout class in the morning, May had been distracted by the boxes, and now that it was recess, instead of going to see what new toys Ms. Kelly had ordered for everyone, May gravitated to the towers of cardboard.

"What are you doing?" Drew asked, appearing beside her.

"I'm looking at the boxes," May answered.

"Oh." Drew stared at them for a moment too. "Why?"

May turned to him, her eyes sparkling. "Do you think Ms. Kelly will let us play with them?"

Drew frowned in puzzlement. "With the boxes?"

"Yes! There's lotsa stuff we can do with boxes!"

"Like what?"

"Hmm, I don't know. Maybe we can make a house."

Drew looked at the boxes up and down. He wasn't sure how they'd be able to make a house with boxes. But May had already run off to their teacher.

"Ms. Kelly," May said. "Can I have some of the boxes? I wanna make something!"

Ms. Kelly looked at the boxes thoughtfully. "Hm. Well, I was planning to save them for storage, but I suppose you could have one if you like."

Ms. Kelly picked a large box for them - about half as tall as May vertically - and placed it on their table. May thanked Ms. Kelly and bounced on her feet in excitement.

"It's going to be a tiny house," Drew said, inspecting the cardboard.

"That's okay," said May. "We can make it for tiny people."

"Whatcha doing?" Gary asked, coming to the table. He'd noticed the box and was intrigued.

"We're making a house," said May.

Gary eyed the box jealously. "I want one too."

"Ms. Kelly said we could only have one. You could make a house with us if you want."

Gary crossed his arms doubtfully. "I don't wanna make it a house."

"Then what?"

Gary tapped his chin. "I want it to be... a spaceship!"

Drew raised an eyebrow. "A spaceship? But—"

"Yes!" May shrieked. "A spaceship! Let's make a spaceship!"

Drew watched them skeptically. He wasn't entirely sure how a box this size could make a good spaceship, even if it was pretend. At home, they always bought him life-sized play sets, but a box like this... well, he wasn't sure it would have the same effect.

But May was so enthusiastic, and Gary so eager, so, Drew decided, he would wait and see how it turned out.

"Okay," May said importantly. "We're gonna need windows. Round windows."

"And the blaster thingies that fire comes out of," Gary added.

"And fire that comes out of the blaster thingies!"

"And the pointy thingy at the top. Like a rocket."

"And curtains for the windows!"

Did rocket ships have curtains on the windows? Drew wondered. He'd never seen them on TV. May and Gary seemed to really know what they were doing, though. They'd already brought supplies, and May had started making a cone shape for the top, while Gary looked like he was about to stab the cardboard with scissors to make the windows.

"Wait," said Drew. He picked up a pencil and drew a large circular window on the box. "Maybe you should cut it along the circle so it's straight."

"I could do it without the circle," Gary said. But he used the circle all the same.

Soon, all three were attempting to glue everything together: the pointed top, the blasters, the curtains on the jaggedly cut window. Ms. Kelly, seeing them struggle, offered to help, and soon, they had their own little rocket ship put away in a corner while the glue dried.

When class started again, the three friends sat giddily at their table. May was delighted with the project, and Drew had to admit, making it was a lot of fun. Even Gary seemed more excited than bossy like he usually did. The fourth in their friend group, Paul, eyed them strangely. He'd been in a corner, doing his own thing, flipping through books. He hadn't been paying attention to what the others had been doing. He didn't have to ask, however, because they immediately began telling him about it.

"We were making a spaceship," May said excitedly.

"Yeah," said Gary. "You missed the whole thing."

"Oh," said Paul.

"Maybe you can help finish it tomorrow," said May.

"I thought we already finished it," said Drew in surprise.

"No, silly," said May giggling. "We hafta colour it. We can ask Ms. Kelly for paint!"

"Will she let us?" Drew wondered. "Painting is messy sometimes."

"Then we can use markers."

"We're gonna need lotsa markers to colour all of it," said Gary.

"Ms. Kelly buyed lots of new stuff. Maybe she got new markers too!"

By the time they started class, Paul seemed interested in joining in too, even though he usually did his own thing during recess. May and the others promised to let him help finish their project tomorrow.

May couldn't wait for tomorrow.

She spent the rest of the day distracted, and rambled to her mother about the spaceship during the car ride back home. She got to talk about it all over again when her father came home from work and needed to be filled in. She even told her little brother Max about it before his bedtime, but he fell asleep halfway through.

Finally, the next day came, and May arrived at school all excited. She'd brought extra markers from home, and, to her delight, Drew had brought stickers and glitter as well. He had gotten a lot more invested in the project than he initially was.

When it was time for recess, the four friends gathered at a table with all their art supplies. The spaceship, its glue having dried overnight, sat on the table before them.

Paul tilted his head curiously. "This is the spaceship?"

"Yup," said Gary, grinning broadly. "It's so cool, right?"

"Hm."

Paul didn't have the enthusiastic reaction May had thought he would. He just stared at it, as if in thought.

"It looks sorta plain to me," he said.

May frowned. "Why?"

"It's 'cause we haven't coloured it yet," said Gary, slightly irritant at the criticism. "Once we colour it, you'll see: it'll be the best spaceship ever!"

Paul still looked doubtful. "The spaceships I see on TV are different. They have lots of buttons and stuff on them."

"Then we can add those too," said Drew.

May's face broke out in a wide grin. "Yes, we can add all that stuff! It'll be so amazing - we can use colour paper." May brought over sheets of colourful construction paper. "We can cut out little buttons and stick it on the time machine spaceship house."

"We should colour it first," said Drew. "Or else we might accidentally colour over the buttons."

"I wanna start colouring," said Gary reaching for a marker.

And so they did. May and Gary started colouring the box with markers, while Drew and Paul cut the coloured paper into buttons and shapes they thought would look interesting. As the end of recess neared, May and Gary stepped back to view their work. They didn't manage to colour the entire thing - the box was too big, and some of May's markers were running out of ink - but, they decided, it was good enough. They could cover the blank parts with the stickers and glitter Drew had brought.

"Are you guys done?" Gary asked Drew and Paul, who were still cutting paper. "We gotta glue that on before recess is over."

Drew looked at all the snips and shapes they'd gathered. "I think we're done," he said thoughtfully.

They started pasting the paper onto the box, and with the four of them working together, they were done in no time. All the spots that were left empty they filled with stickers. Finally, they finished it off by sticking glitter everywhere.

"It looks beautiful!" May squealed. "This is the bestest spaceship in the world!"

"And out of the world, 'cause spaceships go into outer space," said Gary, his eyes shining. "It's the coolest."

They were done just in time too, because right then, Ms. Kelly announced recess was over. When she came over to their table, her eyes widened.

"Oh my," she said. "Excellent work, you all!"

"Isn't it the greatest?" May gushed, beaming. "Do you really like it, Ms. Kelly?"

"Absolutely," she said. "Although..." She looked at the table, covered in glitter and paper snippings and spilt glue and uncapped markers. "You all should start cleaning up." She eyed the students as well. "Maybe you four should too."

The four friends looked down at themselves; it looked like they'd become part of the art too, since they too were covered in glitter and glue and paper snips and stray stickers.

"Before you start though..." Ms. Kelly hurried to her desk and brought out a camera from a drawer. "I think this would make a great memory."

The next day, when May came to school, the spaceship was officially done: they'd left it in the classroom overnight and the glue had dried, cementing the parts together. When recess came, the four friends stood staring at it admiringly.

"What should we do now?" May said in quiet awe.

"Now," said Gary, "we go to space."

Drew looked at him, confused. "To space? How can we go to space?"

But Gary had already run to where the toys were and was rummaging through the drawer with Pokemon figurines. He pulled out one of a Wartortle and held it up to show his friends. "This is me," he said, popping it into the spaceship through the window.

"Oh! Oh!" May raced to the figurine drawer and selected a Skitty. "This one's me! And..." She held up a Murkrow with its wings folded. "This one's kind of like you, Paul. See? Its hat's like your rain hat."

It wasn't really, but Paul shrugged, and May popped Skitty and Murkrow into the spaceship. "What about you, Drew?" she chirped.

"Um..." He wasn't really sure what was going on, but walked over and picked out a Flygon. "I like this one," he said.

May plucked it from his hand and put it inside as well. Then, Gary lifted the box as high as he could.

"Everyone, put your seat belt on get ready," he announced. "We're taking off in five, four, three,..."

"Two," May joined in the count. "One!"

Gary, the spaceship held above him, started to run around the room, making rocket ship noises with his mouth. May ran after him in glee, and Paul followed leisurely behind. Drew hesitated - he wasn't sure they were supposed to be running around like this - but Ms. Kelly hadn't said anything (she was busy at her desk) so he followed as well.

"We're in space now," Gary proclaimed. "Where should we go?"

"There's a planet over there!" said May, pointing to one of the tables. "We should land and look at it."

"Okay," said Gary. "Landing in three, two, one!"

He placed the spaceship onto the table, and poked his hand through its window to fish out the Pokemon figurines.

"Okay," he said. "Now we gotta see what's around here. Hey, what's this?"

He made the Wartortle poke the hand of one of the boys who was sitting at the table, colouring. The boy scowled and swatted him away.

"It's not very friendly," said Gary.

"We should go over there," said May, having her Skitty walk to the other side of the table. "Look at this!" She made her Skitty nudge a crayon. "It's so orange!"

A girl who was at the table took the crayon, and Drew frowned. He had the feeling they were bothering the kids at this table.

"We should play somewhere else," he suggested.

"We're not playing," said Gary. "We're in space!"

Drew looked at the other kids, who were starting to give them irritated looks (or staring at their spaceship with awe). He took the Flygon figurine, and imagined what his friends saw: the four of them, as Pokemon, exploring a new planet. And the other students? They were very grumpy-looking aliens.

"Okay," said Flygon-Drew. "Let's go to a different planet now."

"Okay!" Skitty-May chirped.

They all entered the spaceship again and Wartortle-Gary had them blast off once more. He flew around for a while before finally choosing to land on the floor, near the blocks section.

"Okay, let's all get out." They all exited the spaceship.

"Wow, look at all these bricks," said Skitty-May, looking at all the blocks.

"We should use them to build a house in space," said Wartortle-Gary. "Like a base - a space-base!"

"Yes! I'll get some of these bricks," said Skitty-May, pushing the huge blocks into a pile with her head.

"Yes." Wartortle-Gary nodded approvingly, all commander-like. "You two," he said, pointing at Flygon-Drew and Murkrow-Paul. "You hafta put it together. You can reach the high places 'cause you can fly."

Murkrow-Paul nodded solemnly and got to work, stacking the bricks one on top of the other.

"It's a good idea to do it like this," said Flygon-Drew, making a sturdier base. "So it doesn't fall apart."

With Skitty-May and Wartortle-Gary bringing in the bricks, and Flygon-Drew and Murkrow-Paul putting them together, their base was being built up in no time. It was almost done when they heard a yell.

"Hey! Those're mine! You're stealing my blocks!"

The four turned. Skitty-May gasped. "A space alien!"

"We gotta fight it!" Wartortle-Gary exclaimed. He started hitting blocks towards the alien with his head, but the alien let out a furious roar.

"Hey, stop that!" he yelled.

"Yeah, stop it," said Flygon-Drew.

Wartortle-Gary eyed the Ms. Kelly Alien - the seer of all things - and saw her start to raise her head. He decided it would be best to abort mission. "Quick, we gotta get out of here," he said, jumping into the spaceship, the others following behind.

"I wonder why the alien got so mad," said Skitty-May when they were all settled inside.

"He said we were taking his blocks," said Murkrow-Paul with a shrug.

"Wait," said Flygon-Drew, turning to Skitty-May and Wartortle-Gary. "Where did you get those bricks?"

"They were just around," said Skitty-May.

"I saw some old buildings and took some from there," said Wartortle-Gary.

Flygon-Drew frowned. "What if they weren't old buildings?"

"They were broken! No one was around them."

"Maybe someone was still building them. Maybe they were just not finished."

Skitty-May looked worried. "So did we... steal the alien's bricks?"

"We have to give them back," said Flygon-Drew.

"Okay, mission: return the alien's bricks!" Wartortle-Gary announced.

The spaceship returned to where it had been before. As quickly as they could, Flygon-Drew and Murkrow-Paul dismantled their base, and Wartortle-Gary and Skitty-May moved them back to the alien's lair. The alien frowned at them, but grumbled a thanks.

"Okay, let's go back into space!" said Wartortle-Gary. But when the group turned back to their spaceship, it was no longer there. "Where did...?"

And then their eyes landed on the culprit, who was holding the spaceship, smirking at them. They collectively stood, their fury building up in the air.

"Give that back, Damian," Paul said, his voice quiet but piercing.

Damian's smirk widened. "What? I'm just looking. I like it."

"Give it back."

"But I'm playing too. See?" He held up a Charmeleon figurine and popped it into the spaceship. "It's mine now."

Charmeleon-Damian settled into the commander seat of the spaceship and began pressing all sorts of dials and buttons. "Blasting off," he said. "In three, two, one..."

Before Wartortle-Gary's crew could reach him, Charmeleon-Damian had already blasted off into the dark expanse that was space, leaving them stranded on the planet.

But not for long.

All of them had spacesuits, and Flygon-Drew and Murkrow-Paul could fly.

Wartortle-Gary climbed onto Flygon-Drew's back, while Skitty-May held onto Murkrow-Paul's talon as he took flight.

"After him!" Wartortle-Gary cried, and the flying-types - along with the non-flying-types - took off in pursuit of the stolen spaceship.

Charmeleon-Damian, however, knew how to drive fast: he dodged around comets and zoomed past planets, escaping his pursuers with ease. The Wartortle-Gary crew split up to try to cut him off, with Wartortle-Gary and Flygon-Drew going one way, and Skitty-May and Murkrow-Paul going the other. Soon, they had him surrounded.

"Give up," Skitty-May shouted. "Give up, and give us back our spaceship!"

"Yeah," said Flygon-Drew, crossing his arms. "We worked really hard to build it - it took two days!"

Charmeleon-Damian poked his head out of the spaceship. "No, I want it," he said with a cruel sneer. "I can fly it better than you guys. I'm gonna keep it."

"No you're not!" Wartortle-Gary jumped off Flygon-Drew and launched himself onto Charmeleon-Damian. Charmeleon-Damian yelled out, but managed to keep the spaceship's controls out of the hands of Wartortle-Gary. But Wartortle-Gary didn't give up: he shoved and reached and just as his fingers touched the spaceship controls...

Crack.

It took a moment for Gary and Damian to understand what had just happened.

Gary had been trying to get the spaceship, but Damian had been using one hand to hold it out of reach and the other to keep Gary away. But before May could sneak up from behind to get it, the two boys had toppled over... and fallen right on top of the spaceship, crushing the box beneath them.

Gary and Damian scrambled off the spaceship, but too late: it had been damaged beyond repair. They all stared at it for a solid minute, horrified, before May finally found her voice.

"You broke it!" she shrieked. "You broke our spaceship, Damian!"

"N-no, I didn't!" he said defensively, standing up. "It... You were the one who pushed me onto it!" He glared at Gary.

"I was trying to get it back!" Gary yelled. "You stole it from us!"

"Yeah, you're the one who broke it Damian," May hollered, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. "You broke it! You ruined it! You stole it, and then you... And then you..." Her eyes were welling up with hot, angry tears, and she wanted to scream at him and scream at him and—

"Get off me!" Damian snarled, giving her a hard shove. She stumbled, but she held onto his shirt.

"No!" she yelled. "You broke it!"

"Don't push May!" Gary yelled, but Damian only shoved her harder until she lost her grip and fell against a table.

"Hey, stop it!" Drew yelled.

"That's it," Paul snarled, stepping towards him. Drew remembered when Paul had fought Damian over his hat earlier in the year, and he knew what was coming if he didn't stop it.

"No, don't! You'll get in trouble!" he cried, grabbing Paul by the shirt.

"Get off me," Paul said, trying to wrench his shirt from Drew's grip, and for a moment, Drew was afraid he'd push him like Damian had pushed May. Instead, the two bumped into a chair and tipped over, falling to the ground.

"ENOUGH!"

The five kindergartners fell silent. Slowly, they looked in the direction of their teacher, Ms. Kelly. She was standing there, arms on her hips, expression stern and scolding. She'd been trying to get their attention since noticing the commotion, but they hadn't heard her over the screaming. Her eyes travelled from Paul and Drew on the floor, to May and Gary and Damian, to the crushed spaceship...

"What," she said, her voice frighteningly calm, "is going on here?"

The entire room was quiet - even the other kindergartners had abandoned what they'd been doing to see what was going on.

Then...

"He broke it!" May hollered, pointing at Damian. "He broke our spaceship!"

"Did not!" Damian pointed to Gary. "He pushed me onto it!"

"No, he stole it from us, and I was tryna' get it back!" Gary said hotly, running a sleeve over his eyes to stop them from tearing up.

"And then he pushed May," Drew added, standing up.

"And I didn't beat him up, so I didn't do anything wrong," said Paul.

Ms. Kelly closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose. Finally, she let out a slow, steady breath.

"Why is it always you guys," she muttered to herself.

Ms. Kelly handled the situation the best she could, but she couldn't better May's mood, even when she promised to give her a copy of the picture she'd taken of her and her friends with the spaceship when they'd first finished making it. Gary was upset about it too, but he seemed more determined to hold it in and had ended up directing all his anger and hatred at Damian. Ms. Kelly made sure to keep an extra-sharp eye out, but fortunately, they didn't end up fighting again.

It wasn't until next week that May and her friends began getting over the incident. When they arrived on Monday, May noticed that, once again, there was a stack of boxes. These boxes, however, were much smaller - the size of tissue boxes - and were set up on the spare table.

"I decided we could do some art today with these boxes," Ms. Kelly said to the class. "Each one of you can pick a box and make something out of it. It can be anything: a house, a jewellery box, a spaceship" - she glanced at May's table when she said that last one - "the choice is up to you. Use your imagination!"

With the rest of the class, May picked a box, but it didn't lift her spirits. She still remembered that spaceship she'd made with her friends. It wasn't the same.

She brought the box to her table and sighed.

"What's wrong?" Drew asked. He, Gary and Paul had picked their boxes too.

"Nothing," May said dejectedly. "I just miss our spaceship."

"You can try making another one with your new box," Drew said, trying to lift her spirits.

"I guess," said May, frowning down at her little box. "It's just... not like the other box. It's so small."

So what? Drew thought. He'd thought the first box was really small, but he'd ended up having a lot of fun with it, even if it didn't last long. But May looked so down...

An idea popped into his head.

"What if we make it bigger?" he said. He pushed his box towards hers. "We could glue our boxes together and make a bigger box!"

May looked at him, surprised. "But then you—"

"Yeah!" Gary, who had been listening in, pushed his box towards theirs, his eyes shining. "We can add mine, and make it even bigger! It can be like we're making the part two of the first spaceship!"

Paul pushed his box towards theirs as well. "I don't know what to make with mine," he said. "It's funner when we made that first one together."

May looked at her friends, her eyes shining. "You guys..." She shut her eyes, then opened them, full of determination.

"Yes," she said. "Let's make the best new spaceship together!"

And, once again, they got to work.

Aaaand done!

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Thanks for reading!

Bye bye for now! Stay safe, and have a great day - be sure to smile all the way! :)