Hello everyone!
I'm actually surprised I'm updating today. I had so much school work, I barely had any time to write it this week! But somehow I did, and here you go! This week's chapter!
Oh, and the poll results are announced! You can check them out in the author's note at the end.
Today's topic was suggested by a guest reviewer.
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon in any way, shape or size!
Reading Buddies
Grade Two
May (7), Drew (7), Gary (7), Paul (7), Ash (7), Misty (7)
The grade two students were whispering to one another while they waited at their desks. Their teacher, Ms. Beatrix, was outside, talking to another teacher. The day before, she had announced that this year, they were going to try a reading-buddy program, where every once in a while, students from grade seven would come and make small reading groups with them, and they would read together for half-an-hour.
"Who do you think would be in our reading group?" Ash whispered noisily to Misty, who was sitting in the desk next to him.
"I don't know." Misty replied. "I don't even know any of the big kids, other than my sisters. And Gary's sister too, I guess."
"Me neither. Actually, I know some big kids, like Gary's sister, and maybe Paul's brother a bit too. But I don't think I know anyone from grade seven."
"You know my sister, Lily. She's in grade seven."
"Yeah, but I don't really want her to be my reading buddy..."
"Me neither!"
Every instantly quieted once Ms. Beatrix reentered the classroom.
"Class, the grade sevens are here." she announced. "I want all of you to be at your best behaviour with them, and show them what good students you all are!"
The grade seven students entered the room, all remarkably taller than the grade twos. They stood at the front of the class, while their teacher stood with Ms. Beatrix.
Ms. Beatrix began giving instructions. "I want you all to find a partner from this class. Then, choose one of the older kids as another partner. Each group will have two students from grade two, and one from grade seven. Is everyone clear?"
"Yes, Ms. Beatrix!" the class chanted.
"Okay everyone, make a group!"
The class became very noisy as everyone made their way to friends, or observed the older kids, trying to pick the least scary-looking ones.
"Wanna be in my group?" Ash asked Misty, who agreed immediately. Gary and Paul had already partnered up, as had May and Drew.
Misty and Ash walked around, trying to locate a free grade seven student. Both of them ended up coming face to face with Misty's sister, Lily, much to their displeasure.
"Like, Misty! What are you doing here?" Lily asked with a raised eyebrow.
"This is my class." Misty replied, scowling.
"Okay, like, good luck finding a reading buddy, then. All the good ones are almost taken, so, like, you better hurry up!"
Misty looked a bit relieved that Lily didn't insist on becoming their reading buddy (she didn't expect her to, anyways), but she still found some truth in what she was saying.
"Come on," she urged Ash as Lily walked away to meet up with two grade two girls, Duplica and Casey. "We have to find buddy! We don't want to end up with someone boring, who doesn't even want to read with us."
The two searched, and finally found a tall grade seven student, who offered to partner up with them. He had spiky brown hair (though not like Gary's), squinty eyes, and a friendly smile.
"Hello, I'm Brock." he introduced himself. "Looks like you two could use a last member to your group!"
He seemed nice enough, so Ash and Misty accepted. Soon, once everyone was in a group of three, they all went to the school library to pick out some reading material. Ash rushed over to a shelf.
"I wanna read this one!" He held up a book that had a picture of a heroic-looking man riding a Dragonite while a Pigeot flew beside him. "It's so cool!"
"Ash, you've read that one already!" Misty said, frowning. "Let's read this!" She held up her choice. "It's about a little girl who gets lost at sea, and then makes friends with a lot of water Pokemon, like Dewgong, and Seaking, and Starmie too!"
"That's sounds boring! I wanna read a cool hero-story with lots of action!"
"No, I wanna read about water Pokemon!"
"How about this one?" Brock suggested, pulling out a book that was a bit bigger that Misty's and Ash's choice from the shelf. "In this story, there is hero who goes to find a lost ship at sea. It has many water-type Pokemon, and a lot of action too, because there are many challenges he has to face, like battling pirates. I've read it before; it's great!"
"It looks very long..." Ash observed the thickness.
"There aren't any pictures!" Misty noted as she flipped through another copy of the book that she had picked up.
"That's okay, because then you can use your imagination to see what's going on!"
"But I like looking at the water-type Pokemon pictures!" Misty whined.
"The letters are too small, and it has a lot of weird, long words in it!" Ash added. He peeked at the copy Misty was holding. "Like this one! It says tur-something."
"Turbulence." Brock read the word Ash was having trouble with. "Don't worry, I'll help you guys out!"
"But-"
"Have you three picked out a book yet?" Ms. Beatrix asked as she passed by them.
"Well," Brock started.
"Okay, we'll do that book." Misty agreed, not very enthusiastically. She didn't want them to be the only ones who hadn't picked out a book yet.
"Good! Now, enjoy your story!" As the teacher left, Brock handed the copy of the book in his hand to Ash.
"Since there are only two copies, you two can use them. I'll just look over your shoulder." he offered.
Ash grinned. "Thanks!" Even if he wasn't too pleased with the book he had picked out, Ash was starting to like this guy.
They all settled down at a table that seemed a bit too small for Brock. They decided that Misty and Ash would take turns reading aloud, with Brock helping them out with difficult-to-read words.
Ash offered to start off. He kept stumbling over words, and while his grade seven buddy did correct him multiple times, he found it too frustrating. He finally put down the book with a sigh.
"Can we read something else?" he asked, hoping Brock would change his mind. Misty might have not agreed with Ash's choice of books, but she did agree with him about wanting to read something else.
"But we just started." said Brock, frowning. "We haven't even finished the first page."
"But it's too long and boring!"
"And I can't even understand what's going on!" Misty chimed in.
Brock thought for a second. "I think the reason you two don't get it is because you are having difficulty reading it. Maybe I can read the first chapter out to you guys, and then you could see whether you like it or not. Trust me, once you find it interesting, it'll become much easier for you guys to read!"
Misty and Ash reluctantly decided to go through with their buddy's plan. The older boy began reading, while the two only half-listened. Misty glanced around the library to see what everyone else was doing.
Lily was talking to another girl from her class, while Casey and Duplica, as well as the other girl's grade two partners, watched them, clearly wanting them to participate more in helping them read.
May and Drew were with a grade seven boy with light green hair, who kept talking in a strange way by comparing everything with something food-related. Drew stared at him confusedly, probably trying to figure out what he was saying, while May seemed to look hungrier when the boy made a chocolate reference.
Gary and Paul, on the other hand, seemed to be having a great time annoying their seventh grade partner to death. It didn't even look like they were really reading at all, and the older red-haired boy was working hard to keep it together. Misty strained her ears to hear what they were saying, and only caught the older boy loudly say something to the other two that sounded like, "No, my last name is not Pepper!" while Gary and Paul snickered mercilessly.
Misty was pondering what that was all about when she heard something that caught her interest.
"Quickly, he mounted his Lapras, and turned back to the others. 'I'll find them.' he said solemnly. 'And I'll bring them back.'" Brock read aloud.
Just the name of Lapras, a water-type Pokemon, was enough to make Misty listen. She realized that at one point, Ash must have started to pay attention to what Brock was reading as well, because he was currently listening to him intently.
As Misty listened to the story, she began to realize that maybe it was not boring after all, and apart from the fact that it included many water type Pokemon, it also seemed to be a very interesting story overall. Suddenly, Brock stopped reading.
"Why'd you stop?" Ash asked confusedly. "I wanna know what happens next!"
"Well, that was the first chapter. I said I'll read it to you two, and you guys can decide whether you want to continue it or not." Brock explained.
"Yeah, we do! Right, Misty?" Ash nodded his head vigorously in Misty's direction, trying to get her to say yes. Misty, who completely agreed with Ash just shrugged.
"I guess it's not bad." she said, the stubborn part of her brain refusing to let her express her childish excitement about it like Ash was.
"Okay, then we'll continue this book! Which one of you would like to read aloud next?"
Misty and Ash looked at each other before turning back to the seventh grader.
"Can you?" Ash asked hopefully. "It's a lot more fun when you read it."
"I can't read all of it myself." Brock explained. "It's a reading group; we all have to take turns."
"Okay." Ash thought for a second. "Can I try again?"
"No way!" Misty folded her arms. "You already had a chance. It's my turn now!"
Brock chuckled to himself. The two had been so reluctant to read the book before, but now that they were interested in it, they were fighting over who got to read it.
"Okay class!" Ms. Beatrix suddenly spoke up. "It's time for the grade sevens to head back to their class!"
This was met with groans from the grade twos, as well as "Already?" and "But we were having so much fun!"
"But we didn't finish the book!" Ash worriedly looked over at Brock.
"Don't worry." Brock assured him. "My class would be coming over every week, so we'll meet again next week." Misty and Ash relaxed.
As the grade sevens started gathering at the door with their teacher, the two went over to their other friends.
"Hi!" May said cheerily when they came up to her. "That was fun! How was your partner?"
"He was really cool!" Ash exclaimed. "His name's Brock, and we're reading an awesome book with him!"
"Ours was okay. His name is Cilan." Drew said, looking over to his green-haired partner, who was now standing beside Paul and Gary's red-haired partner and another boy with blue hair. "He kept talking about food, though. I think he was a bit hungry."
Paul and Gary walked over, each smirking widely.
"What's so funny?" May asked, puzzled. Gary turned around to face where his grade seven partner was standing.
"Bye Chili Pepper!" he called out loudly.
"My last name is NOT Pepper!" he yelled back, looking furious. "And it's not Sauce either!" He suddenly stumbled and fell down. "What the-? When did you guys tie my shoelaces together?!"
Gary burst out laughing while Paul snickered.
"Calm down, Chili." the blue-haired boy said to him. "They're just little kids."
"Just little kids! Cress, those troublemakers are out to get me!"
"Hmmm, like a delicious meal served with extra spice!" Cilan commented.
"I'll just get new partners next week..." Chili grumbled.
"Everyone, say thank you to the grade sevens!" Ms. Beatrix reminded her students.
"Thank you grade seven!" the class chanted.
"And please remember who your partners were. It'll be easier if everyone keeps the same partners, so we can get right to reading next time!"
Both Ash and Misty were glad to be meeting Brock again next week, but it seemed Paul and Gary's partner, Chili, was less than pleased.
"You know," Misty looked down at the book they had been reading. "I really want to know what happens next. I know! I'll try to read it myself!"
"Yeah, good idea!" Ash picked up one of the copies. "I'll just borrow it from the library!"
Misty frowned. "It'll be too hard for you to read, Ash. You couldn't even read the first page properly!"
Ash stuck up his nose indignantly. "Can too! I might even read it faster than you, Misty!"
"No you can't!"
"Yes I can!"
Misty glared at him. "Then we'll have a race! Whoever can read the most before next week wins!"
"Yeah! Let's go tell Ms. Beatrix that we want to borrow these books!"
The two ran off to their teacher, with their books in their hands, and their enthusiasm for reading raised to a considerable height.
Ash and Misty meet Brock and form their trio! And I also added in Cilan, Cress, and Chili, and Lily, and I mentioned Casey and Duplica too.
Okay, poll results! So for these results, I added in guest reviewer votes too, since they can't vote on my profile. So if you don't see the same results on my profile, it's because I added the guest reviewer results myself. If you're not sure what I'm saying, the main point is that I'm announcing the final results right now!
So the question was, who is your favourite out of the main-eight, and you were allowed to pick a maximum of three choices.
Okay, drum-roll please! (*drum-roll*)
In fourth place, we have Misty and Leaf, with 3 votes each! (*cheers and applause*)
In third place, we have Ash, Gary and Dawn, with 4 votes each! (*more cheers and applause*)
In second place, we have Drew, with 6 votes each! (*crowd loudly cheers and applauses*)
And finally, in first place...
It's a tie! May and Paul, with seven votes each! (*crowd goes wild, cheering and throwing flowers*)
"Yay, flowers!" May cheers.
Drew grins and flips his hair, proud of his second place. Although first place wouldn't have been too bad either.
"Woohoo! I'm popular!" Gary embraces his popularity.
"Wait!" Dawn shrieks. "I didn't brush my hair!" (*camera turns away for a second, before focusing back on her*) "Okay, I'm done!"
Misty blinks as if realizing something and looks around confusedly. "Wait... where are we?"
"The author's note." Leaf explains.
"What's the author's note?" Ash asks.
Paul shrugs, deciding to just go with the flow.
And there you go! Congratulations, Paul and May, on getting first place!
Please review, and thanks for reading!
Bye bye for now! And have a smiling day! :)