1 week later
"Mr. Ketchum!" a voice suddenly yelled as Ash lifted his head from his desk in record breaking speed
"I'm up!" he said, as everyone started laughing while May, Gary and even Lillie glanced at him in worry. This was the 2nd time in a row that Ash had slept through a class
"If you were up, would be so kind enough to tell us what it is I just explained for homework?"
Sweat dropping at this, Ash suddenly saw his phone light up with a message explaining what the homework was "You want us to read chapter 4, answer the questions from the worksheet you have yet to give us and get into a group of 3 and make a presentation on any historical event"
Ms. Lorelei seemed satisfied with his answer and turned back to the board. Ash sighed in relief and grabbed his phone, sending May a thank you for the help
May noticing a notification pop up, sent Ash a small smile after reading his response. However, she planned on finding out what was going on with him, but unfortunately she hasn't been able to do that due to some complications... maybe she should just let Ash tell her when he's ready, she knows she wouldn't like it if someone was following and taking notes on her after all
Soon the bell rang and everyone started clearing out of the classroom. Ash took slightly longer due to Ms. Lorelei holding him up, but soon met up with both May and Gary at the door
"Hey ketchup!" an annoyingly familiar voice called out as Ash really wasn't in the mood to deal with her of all people right now
"Ketchup?" May questioned as Gary whispered about the 'nickname'
"Serena... what do you want?" he asked coldly as May looked at the raven-haired teen in surprise. She had never heard that tone of voice before, this Serena must be something if Ash was acting this way
The honey-blonde didn't seem to mind the tone as she came to a stop in front of the trio "Where's our project for English. You didn't finish it in the week I told you and tomorrow is the due date"
Sighing Ash took his backpack off and pulled out a blue folder as Serena yanked it out of his hands
"Guess those rumors about you sleeping in class must be wrong since you were able to finish this. Anyway, I came to tell you, I need you to do my part as well since I won't be able to complete it by tomorrow"
Both May and Gary stared at her in utter shock, while Ash was trying hard not to lash out at the girl
"You can't expect him to do all the work! If you're his partner, then you should do your own part. You don't deserve any credit if Ash is doing the whole thing" May said in a furious tone as Serena looked at the brunette
"And who are you supposed to be, his girlfriend" Serena said in a teasing tone as May turned a deep shade of red "Look sweetie, you might be new here and all, but their all rules. One of the rules is making people like ketchup know their place. I am busy and he isn't, therefore, he should do the work"
"Serena that's enough" Gary angrily said, making the popular girl turn towards him and as if only just noticing the teen
"Hmm still hanging out with this loser I see Oak. I don't get what you see in him. If you didn't hang out with ketchup over here, you would have been part of the popular kids"
"I'm happy where I am. At least I have real friends than those stuck up brats. The only one you can call a human being in your group is Calem"
"Whatever. Ketchup, finish my part and you better hope we get a good grade" was all Serena said as she left towards whatever class she had next
"What a jerk" May commented as soon as the honey blonde was gone
"You May have just had your first encounter with none other than the queen and most popular girl of the school; Serena Yvonne" Gary said with a sigh as he noticed Ash gripping his backpack tightly
"More like Ice Queen. Someone should teach her a thing or two about manners" the brunette stubbornly said with crossed arms
"Not like that will make any difference" Ash mumbled as he carefully placed his hard work into his backpack again
"But Ash-"
"Just leave it May. Nothing is going to change" Gary sadly said as the brunette watched the two childhood friends walk away, leaving her to stare at the two
After school, Maple Residence
May had been explaining about what she had seen today at school and how she didn't believe it to be fair. Heck May had almost gone into the principal's office, but Dawn had stopped her and said she could do nothing to change the way of things just like Gary had said
"And then this girl just out right told Ash to do her part as well!" May angrily said as she shoved a piece of food into her mouth
Max at this point was tuning out his sister as he played on his phone, while there mother on the other hand looked just as furious as May
"Partner work is meant to be done by all members of the team. You can't lump it all on one person" Caroline said as May threw her hands in the air
"Thank you! What's wrong is that she is the queen and most popular girl in the school!" May said and slumped down in her seat
Caroline looked at her daughter sadly as she was now picking at her food. She knew that school could be tough, but she didn't think it would go to that extent. If it had been Caroline in place of Ash, she'd be furious... she can only imagine how angry the teen must be
Meanwhile at Riley's House
Ash was angrily punching at the dummy. He shouldn't have been surprised that Serena had dumbed him with her part... again. He hated how the popular kids got away with everything, while people at the bottom of the social ladder were the ones who suffered, even when they did nothing wrong
"What's got you all angry?" Riley asked as he took note of Ash's emotions
"It's nothing" Ash said, hitting the dummy once more and didn't seem to realize he put to much strength into the punch as the dummy was thrown across the room
Riley just raised an eyebrow "Clearly it's not nothing. I can't say I've ever seen you this way before"
"Maybe cause I just had to get partnered up with the worst person in the whole school and get stuck doing all the work! 'Look at me, I'm miss popular and have to much going on in my life to finish an English paper.' As if she's the only one with things going on!" Ash stated and punched the wall, creating a slight dent which he took no note of
Riley decided that Ash needed to release his anger somehow. He was clearly trying hard not to lash out and he had to admit that Ash was doing a good job at holding back. However, Riley was somewhat shocked when he noticed his protégé's eyes glowing blue... he had only thought that would only happen whenever Ash used his aura sight or was sensing auras
"Alright Ash, let's do some combat training and hopefully get all that anger out of your system" he said as he grabbed two training staffs and threw one towards Ash
Seeing as this might help him, Ash decided to pull his sweater off as to not ruin it, letting it fall onto the bench and got onto the mat. The two aura users circled around the room as each waited for one of them to make the first move. However, after a minute of no one moving, Ash got tired of waiting and went to strike first
Riley just moved out of the way and hit Ash on the head. Clutching the staff tighter, Ash saw an incoming attack and ducked down to avoid getting hit. They kept going at it, with Ash's attacks either being dodged or blocked the entire time
Seeing that nothing was working, Ash had started to hesitate on many of his attacks due to this. As such he hesitated again after another failed attempt. The young aura user went for a swing, but was surprised when his attack was stopped by Riley grabbing his staff instead of blocking
"You're hesitating in many of your moves now"
"I'm not hes-" Ash was cut of as he suddenly found himself on the floor. Looking up at Riley, he saw as the older aura user sighed
"You can't hope to expect your enemies to hesitate or take you easy when your out in the field. You hesitate for even a second and that second could cost you your life or those around you"
Ash slowly got back onto his feet. He knew he wasn't in the right state of mind, but still Riley hadn't been kidding when he said more training was needed... the training from before was nothing like this!
However, Ash knew this was the only way he'd be able to go out on the field as the official partner to Lucario and no way is he backing down
"Again" Ash seriously said, grabbing the wooden stick that he had dropped after being swept of his feet
Sighing Riley shook his head "No, you've done enough training for today. I only wanted to do this so you could get your anger out mostly. Besides don't you have a test tomorrow on health"
Ash's eyes widened at that. He had totally forgotten about the test and the study group he and his friends had agreed on "I'm guessing you were to concentrated on becoming a hero to remember that you're still a student in school and studying. Ash, you can't afford to let your grades slip. You're already on the borderline of many of your classes" Riley's voice said from the other room
"I don't get why we have to learn all these things. I mean, when are we going to use health" Ash complained as he put away the staff
"Each subject is taught for a reason Ash. Whether you end up using them or not in the future depends on what you choose to be. Now go on and get your textbook. Cover story or not, I'm not doing my job if I allow you to pass with only a 50% in each class"
Although not wanting to actually do any studying, Ash nonetheless went to get his health stuff. These next 4 months were going to utter pain and torture, both in training and school
Next chapter we'll get a time jump since you all get the point of Ash's training. What I will ask is for you guys to help me for costume designs. Ash will use something similar to Wiccan from Marvel for the time being and Riley I still have yet to figure out. Help would be appreciated :)