Heeeeey people. I'm updating today…

… after so long…

… of not updating…

Ehehehe…

Anyways, happy belated New Year (even though it's March now hahaha) and happy reading!

This chapter was based on a suggestion from a guest reviewer.

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

Juice Box

Grade One

May (6), Paul (6), Drew (6), Ash (6), Gary (6)

Paul stared.

There were a million questions streaming through his mind – how had this happened, why, what was he going to do now, what had he done to deserve this – but they were all left unanswered.

"Paul, what's wrong? Is there a bug in your lunch?"

Paul looked at Drew. His friend was watching him carefully, unlike the others, who were listening to May talk about something pertaining to cupcakes. They were all seated at Gary's desk for lunch, except Paul himself had not started his.

Because…

"There's no orange juice."

Drew peered into his lunchbox and frowned. "It's okay. You can have my apple juice."

Paul furrowed his eyebrows. "I don't want your apple juice. I want orange." Didn't Drew understand? Orange juice and apple juice were not the same. They were incomparable; you couldn't replace one with the other.

What bothered Paul the most was that he knew for a fact that they did have orange juice at home. He would have tolerated it otherwise. In this situation, however, Reggie simply hadn't packed any.

For some reason, that made him the slightest bit uneasy. Reggie had annoyed him in plenty of ways before, but he'd never deprived him of orange juice. It was the one thing that was understood between them – taking away Paul's orange juice was serious business. Was Reggie angry at him over something? But he hadn't done anything wrong lately, had he? His mind flashed with the billions of times he'd annoyed his older brother, and his stomach dropped.

But still. Reggie had never done anything like this before…

He made up his mind. He was going to confront his brother and get to the bottom of this. His chair scraped the floor as he stood, catching his other friends' attention.

"Where are you going?" asked May.

"To my brother." And to distract his friends from the disquiet humming through his mind, he added, "I'm gonna take his orange juice instead." Even though Reggie usually didn't pack any for himself.

"What if he doesn't have any either?" said Drew.

Paul crossed his arms. "I'll make him buy me some."

"From where?"

Paul rolled his eyes. All this questioning was getting rather irksome. He began to make his way to the door.

"Shouldn't you ask the teacher first?" Ash asked, glancing at Mrs. Thomas. Paul glanced at her as well. She was marking their homework, and was only occasionally looking up to scan the class. She wouldn't notice him slip out, if he was careful.

"I can go myself."

"Wait," said Drew, getting to his feet.

"What?"

"I'm coming too."

"Why?"

"'Cause I've been in the big kids' hallway before, and I know where to go." Drew smugly flipped his hair. "I'll show you where to find your brother."

"It's not a big deal," Gary piped up. "I have a big sister, so I go to the big kids' place lots of times too."

"So do I," said Paul. "I don't need you."

"I should still go," Drew insisted. "Just in case you get lost."

"That wouldn't be good," said Ash.

"Yeah," said May. "You should let him go with you. 'Cause once Drew got lost, remember? And then he would have been lost forever, except that girl with the pink hair found him and brought him back."

"That won't happen to me," said Paul. He wanted to tell him not to come so he wouldn't slow him down, but Drew was adamant. Arguing would only waste time, so he started walking. To his annoyance, however, when Drew followed, he ran up to walk in front of him, as if he could lead him to his brother's classroom, even though he'd never even been there before.

"It's this way," he said, pointing up ahead.

"I know," said Paul, his eye twitching. "That's where I was going."

"It's very confusing, because the hallways go this way and that way and sometimes the big kids come, and…" Drew stopped in place. Paul huffed and looked ahead of them to see what was causing the hold-up.

They had reached the junior high hallway, and it was packed.

Everyone had indoor recess today, so the older kids had brought out a ping pong set, tables, and board games. It wasn't too bad, and Paul wondered why Drew wasn't hurrying up, when he realized Drew wasn't used to this kind of environment.

"Did you forget where to go?" said Paul, smirking. Served him right for acting so high-and-mighty.

"No," Drew said quickly, stepping forward. "It's, um, this way."

"No it's not."

Drew turned a faint shade of pink, but he kept going. Paul followed for a while, just to see where they would end up, but then something caught his eye.

His brother was seated at a table, engrossed in a heated card game with a group of other older kids. Paul walked up to him and stood behind his chair, arms crossed, scowling, trying to muster up the fiercest expression he could. Reggie didn't even noticed he was there, but Paul wasn't going to just leave. Not when he needed answers.

"Hey, Reggie, there's a little kid glaring at you," one of the card players said.

"Huh?" Reggie's eyes landed on Paul and widened a little in surprise. "Oh, hey, Paul. What's up?"

"Is that your little brother?" a girl said. "He's so cute!"

"Not once you get to know him," another girl – Paul recognized her as Maylene – muttered.

Paul's mood worsened. He did not like being talked about like he wasn't there. People always did that, just because he was six. He'd been planning to take Reggie off to the side so they could have a private conversation, but now, he wanted to show Reggie's friends that he was as grownup as them and they couldn't talk about him the way they were.

"Reggie," he said, making sure his voice was calm and his expression cold. "You forgot to pack my lunch."

"What?" Reggie looked incredulous. "I'm pretty sure you had it when you came. Did you lose it somewhere?"

"I brought it because I thought you packed it. But you didn't put stuff in." He was careful to say 'because' instead of ''cause' to sound more mature.

"Paul, I am absolutely one hundred percent sure I packed it. I packed a sandwich, some pretzels, an orange juice—"

"No. You didn't pack any orange juice."

Reggie stared at him, and understanding dawned in his eyes. "Oh. That's what this is about."

"Wow, Reggie," said one of the others teasingly. "You really messed up. Just look at how serious he is."

Paul looked at him coolly and racked his brain for every professional-sounding phrase he had ever heard in his life. "Excuse me," he said, "can you mind your own business? This situation does not concern you."

He was rather pleased with how smoothly he'd said it, but someone burst out laughing, and he couldn't fathom why.

"You just got burned by a kindergartner!"

Paul's outrage flared, and he opened his mouth to correct him, but Reggie beat him to it. "Hey," he said sharply. "He's in grade one."

"Oh sorry, grade one, then," the guy said, grinning and rolling his eyes. "Big difference."

"Yes," Reggie said, unsmiling. "It is a big difference. And quit talking about my brother like he's not there."

"Wow, chill, Reggie."

Reggie stood, shaking his head. "Come on, Paul, we'll go somewhere where these guys won't keep interrupting."

Paul glanced at the others. Some looked puzzled, others like they thought Reggie was overreacting. Paul couldn't help but feel smug. They didn't think Reggie would choose him over them, did they? But he knew that despite everything Reggie did to bother him, he would always have his back.

He and his brother stopped off to the side, and Reggie gave a sheepish smile – a drastic switch from the cool dignity he'd had just a moment ago when he'd defended Paul.

"So… I forgot to pack your orange juice?"

Paul blinked, and then it came back. That's what he'd come here for: to ask about the juice box, or lack of one.

"Yeah," he said. His eyebrows furrowed slightly, but he tried to push down the worry climbing onto his face. "Why didn't you give me orange juice?"

"I forgot." Reggie laughed lightly. "Sorry about that. You came all this way just to ask?"

He… forgot? Reggie just… forgot? The answer was so simple. Paul had come all this way, worried so much… all for nothing? He scowled. Reggie was looking at him with an amused smile.

"You have to give me yours," Paul demanded. To his frustration, Reggie looked even more amused.

"Oh, come on, Paul. You know I don't pack juice boxes for myself."

"You have to buy me one, then."

"From where?"

Paul tried his best to look stern, but he felt like a dumbhead. Especially with Reggie clearly forcing down a laugh.

"Tell you what," he said. "We go home, and I'll give you two juice boxes. How's that? That good?"

"No. I want one now."

"But I don't have one, Paul."

Paul crossed his arms and glared at the floor. Of course he knew there was nothing Reggie could do about it, but he was stubborn. Especially with his pride on the line. He had boasted to his friends, had come all the way here, had been treated like a kindergartner by a bunch of older kids, and was being laughed at by Reggie. He couldn't go back empty-handed.

"All right, all right," said Reggie. "I'll see if there's anything I can do."

He walked back to the group he was playing cards with. Paul didn't follow. He could see Reggie say something to them, some of them chuckling and replying teasingly, and then Maylene, who didn't seem too thrilled, hand something over. Reggie walked back.

"Sorry, Paul, no orange juice," he said. "But Maylene did say you can have this." He held out a small orange, the type that was easy to peel. "This work?"

Paul considered it for a moment. It wasn't a juice box, but he really liked oranges as well. Besides, he knew his demand wouldn't get them anywhere. Reggie couldn't conjure up a juice box from nothing.

"Okay," Paul said, taking the orange. "I'll eat this, then."

"Better hurry back. Break's almost over."

Paul nodded, and Reggie returned to his friends.

Paul looked at his orange. He hadn't even started his lunch, he realized, and he was hungry. He stepped back into the chaos of the crowd, meandering through the legs of the tall older kids, finding his way out of the hall. Finally, he reached his own classroom. His friends were done their lunches. They looked at him when he sat down.

"You got your orange juice?" said Ash.

Paul held out the orange. "He didn't have any, so I got this instead."

"But you're not even gonna have time to eat it," said Gary. He pointed at the clock, as if he knew how to read it. "Lunch is almost over. Mrs. Thomas said so."

Paul shrugged, and got started on his meal. He pushed aside someone else's lunchbox beside him to make more space for himself. Strangely enough, even though no one else was eating, the lunchbox he moved appeared almost untouched.

"Hey," said May looking around. "Where's Drew?"

Paul stared at her. And then at the lunchbox he had just pushed aside. And then to the door.

And then the realization set in.

Whoops.

And thus we reach the end of this chapter!

Wait, so what did happen to Drew? Maybe we'll find out next time. ;) I'm trying to not take as long to update. To help myself get at least a little work in, I'm committing to writing at least one hundred words for fanfiction a week. Hopefully I'll make more progress on these stories than I have in the past year.

In the meantime…

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