Hellooooo all you wonderful readers!

Here is chapter 90. 90! I have written 90 chapters for this fanfic! We're in the last stretch, guys! I've wanted to have this fanfic go up to 100 chapters, though I've been considering doing an epilogue. What do you guys think? Should I have an epilogue?

Anyways, happy reading!

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

Stamps

Grade Two

Gary (7), Paul (7), Drew (7)

Paul and Drew were nothing alike.

Well, that's what Gary thought, anyways.

It was Gary who Paul usually hung out with, Gary who he got into mischief with, Gary whose house he visited every once in a while to play checkers.

So why had Paul been going over to Drew's the past couple of days?

Gary furrowed his brows, trying to figure it out. He knew Paul well enough to know he didn't like hanging out with people a whole lot, and that went for their friend group too - Paul sometimes didn't even want to do things with everyone else when they all hung out together. Gary could sometimes convince him to come over to play checkers, though, and he'd thought he was the only friend that Paul was okay hanging out with one-on-one.

But when he'd called Paul on Saturday to ask if he wanted to come over to play checkers, Paul had refused - no, he was going to go to Drew's house.

Which was weird, because why Drew? Sure, Gary, Paul and Drew had been friends since kindergarten, but Drew had always preferred May's or Ash's company, rather than Gary's and Paul's (they did tease him quite a bit).

But Gary, curious as he was, could dismiss it as a one-time thing.

Except when he called again on Sunday, the response was the same: Paul had plans with Drew.

It was starting to bother him. Since when did Paul go over to Drew's house on his own? Gary wracked his brain for what they could be up to, but he came up with nothing.

That's it, thought Gary. I'm going to go to Drew's house and see what's going on.

He barged into his sister's room.

"Daisy, give me Drew's phone number."

Daisy didn't look up from the book she was reading. "You want to invite him too?"

Gary shook his head. "No, I want to go to his house."

This time, Daisy peered at him from the corner of her eye. "What about Paul? Isn't he coming over?"

"No. He said he's going to Drew's house. I want to go too, so I'm gonna call him and tell him."

"Did Drew invite you?"

Gary shook his head. "No, but I wanna go."

Daisy's attention went back to her book. "Hate to break it to you, but if Drew didn't invite you, it means he might not want you to come."

"But Paul's going," Gary whined.

Daisy sighed, lowering her book and giving her brother an exasperated look. "Maybe whatever they're doing is between them. Something they want to do together, like how you and Paul play checkers without Drew, you know?"

That only irritated Gary more. What was this secret thing Paul and Drew were doing without him?

With a little more insisting, Gary managed to get Daisy to dial Drew's number for him. Drew's butler picked up.

"Hello, Drew's butler," said Gary. "Can I come over and play with Drew?"

"I'll ask the young Master."

A moment later, Drew's butler handed the phone to Drew.

"Hey, Drew, can I come over?"

"Um, why?" Drew asked, sounding confused.

"I was asking Paul if he wants to come over, but he said he's going to your house, so I wanted to come over too."

"Oh." There was a pause. "I'm not sure what we're doing will be that fun for you," he finally said.

"I think I'll have fun," said Gary.

"Really? Did Paul tell you what it is?"

"Of course," said Gary before he could think better of it. "That's why I wanna come."

"All right, if you say so."

Not long afterwards, Gary found himself in front of Drew's mansion, his grandpa telling Drew's butler he would pick him up in an hour.

"Master Andrew and Master Paul are right this way," Drew's butler said, guiding Gary inside.

So Paul's here already, Gary thought.

The butler led Gary into the library.

Professor Oak had a lot of shelves and books in his study, and a small library in the lab where he worked, but Gary had never seen a library this big, and definitely not inside of a house.

Drew's library had a high ceiling, the walls covered entirely in shelves of fancy books. There were staircases going to the upper tiers, and Gary could see the shelves behind the balcony railings were crammed with books too. Drew's butler meandered around rows of shelves and round tables and comfy couches until, finally, he stopped at the table where Drew and Paul were.

Drew's butler cleared his throat. "Master Andrew, your friend is here."

Drew and Paul looked up. A crease appeared between Paul's eyebrows when he saw who it was.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded.

"I want to do what you guys are doing," said Gary, sticking his nose in the air. "Drew said I could."

Paul glared at Drew.

"He called and said he wanted to come too," Drew explained.

"Did you even tell him what we're doing?"

"Gary said you told him, Paul."

Paul scowled. "I didn't."

Gary sat at the table with them, determined to join in. "So," he said, scanning the tabletop. "You guys are looking at..." His eyebrows furrowed. "Stamps...?"

Paul folded his arms and sat back, saying nothing.

Drew looked at him, then back at Gary. "Er, yeah. We're looking at stamps."

Gary stared at the albums covering the table, each filled with hundreds of stamps - the kind you put on envelopes when you mailed them. Except none of them were on envelopes. Gary wondered why anyone would have so many stamps in an album like they were keepsake pictures, but he didn't have a clue.

"Soooo why are we looking at stamps?" Gary asked.

Paul continued his silent sulking. Drew sounded a little reluctant as he tried to explain.

"My grandpa used to collect them, and I found the albums last week. They looked kind of old and cool, and... remember how I was telling everyone at school that I found them?"

Gary tried, but he couldn't remember. He must have not been interested in the conversation. Drew must have realized that, because his voice became even less enthused.

"Well... afterwards Paul asked me about them, so I said he could come over and look at them if he wants." Drew awkwardly gestured to the albums. "So we're looking at them."

Gary was baffled. He turned to Paul. "Why do you wanna look at these? They're so boring."

"This is why I didn't tell you," Paul snapped. "I wanna look at them - so what? But whenever you don't get something, you make fun of it and ruin everything."

"I don't ruin everything! And I'm not making fun of it!" Gary protested, and he meant it. He really, truly didn't get it, and it confused him because he'd thought he and Paul liked the same things. What was so intriguing about stamps that Paul would come to Drew's house to look at some?

But Drew looked a little uncomfortable too. Gary remembered what Daisy said, about Paul and Drew doing their own thing. It was obvious they didn't want Gary there.

Except Gary already was.

"Just tell me, then," he said, folding his arms and sitting back. "What's cool about them? I wanna know."

Paul seemed determined to say nothing, and Drew remained awkwardly silent as well. The three sat quietly for a while.

"Well..." Drew shrugged helplessly. "You can't exactly explain why stamps are cool. My butler says some people just like different kinds of things. Like how you really like playing checkers, but Leaf doesn't like it at all. It's just... different interests."

"Right," Gary said slowly. "So stamps are your interest...?"

"I think it's cool my grandpa had so many old ones," Drew said. "Some look really special. But I don't collect them myself. Paul does, though."

Gary gave Paul an incredulous look. "You actually collect these? For fun?"

Paul stood. "I'm going home."

"I'm not making fun of you!" Gary said angrily. "I'm just asking!"

"Well, it's none of your business!" Paul glared at Drew, as if blaming him.

"C'mon Paul, don't go," Drew pleaded. "No one likes looking at my grandpa's stamps. And I didn't show you the stamps from this album." He pointed to one of the closed albums on the table. "They're more than a hundred years old!"

Paul paused, looking tempted, but his eyes flicked to Gary. It was clear he didn't want to stay with Gary around.

"Fine," said Gary, standing up. "I'll leave then, since you don't want me here!"

It didn't have the guilt-tripping effect Gary wanted, because the moment he stepped away from the table, Paul sat down again, entirely unfazed. But it wasn't like Gary wanted to stay - stamps simply seemed too boring to spend the next hour on.

Except now, Gary didn't know what to do. Gramps had already left, and he'd told Gary he'd do some errands before he came to pick him up, so Gary wouldn't be able to get him to take him home for a while. And Paul and Drew were busy looking at stamps of all things, so neither of him would play with him if he asked.

Gary wandered away, wondering if there was something else more interesting to do in the library. He liked looking at his grandpa's Pokemon books sometimes, so maybe if there were some around here...

But the books filling the library shelves had elaborate covers, so it was hard to see what they were about. And they looked so fancy, Gary didn't want to touch them, in case he ruined them somehow - Drew's family was rich, so the books might cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars, and Daisy always said that if you ruined a library book, you had to pay for it, and Gary was sure he didn't have enough money.

"Stamps not your thing?"

Gary jolted at the voice. He hadn't noticed anyone around him.

But grinning at him from a nearby table tucked between two shelves was Reggie, Paul's older brother.

"What are you doing here?" Gary blurted out.

"The trip from here to our place is kind of long, so instead of going back and forth, I decided to stick around and do my homework here," Reggie explained, gesturing to his books laid out on the table. He tapped his laptop. "Also, the wi-fi here is so much better."

Gary wished he'd brought something to do. Maybe Drew had a laptop or computer he could borrow... but Gary didn't want to go back to where Drew and Paul were to ask.

"You look bored," Reggie observed.

"They're looking at stamps!" Gary said in despair.

Reggie laughed. "I'm not a stamps person either, honestly."

Gary plopped down in the chair across from Reggie. "They won't even tell me why they like stamps!"

"Well, do you like stickers?"

"Yeah."

"Why do you like them?"

"Stickers are fun. And colourful. And..." Gary faltered. He knew he liked stickers, and it seemed obvious why someone would like them. But he wasn't sure how to explain it.

"Hard to explain, isn't it?" said Reggie. "Same way it might be hard to explain why some people like stamps."

"But stickers aren't stamps!" Gary protested. "You can stick stickers everywhere. Who would want to put stamps in an album and just... look at them?"

"Some people like putting stickers everywhere and looking at them. Some people like putting stamps in an album and looking at them. Some people like stickers because they can use them to personalize their things. Some people like stamps because they're from different parts of history." Reggie shrugged. "You can't blame people for liking something."

Gary scowled. Yeah, he couldn't blame Paul and Drew for liking something, but that didn't mean he had to like it.

"Funny thing is," Reggie said with a chuckle, "it's sort of my fault Paul got into stamps."

"Your fault?" Gary gave him a skeptical look. "But you said you didn't even like stamps!"

"Yeah, well..." Reggie gave him a sheepish grin. "There was this time a long time ago when these special Pokemon stickers got super popular. And Paul wanted some, but they were seriously expensive. So one day, I cut out a stamp with a Pokemon on it from some mail and told Paul it was just as good. And then Paul started cutting out all the stamps from our mail."

"But you can't reuse stamps," said Gary.

"Yeah, so he kept it all in a little box." Reggie laughed. "I didn't know at first, but then I found out he'd started going around to the other apartments on our floor and asking if he could cut out the stamps from other people's mail. That's how he met this old man in one of the apartments who was a serious stamp collector - like, he had stamps from so many different years, and he had special albums and everything. He taught Paul about the different histories of different kinds of stamps, and how to take care of stamps and get them off the envelope paper, and he even gave him an empty album for his collection. And now Paul just... really likes stamps."

"Oh." Gary wasn't sure how any of this information was supposed to help him, though.

"Anyways, my point it, you don't have to get why someone likes something. Just, know they like it, and they may or may not want to share it with others and... respect that. I don't get stamps, you don't get stamps, but Paul and Drew do, so..." Reggie shrugged. "Just go with it."

"Okay," Gary said with a huff. "But I'm bored."

Reggie laughed. "Once I'm done with my homework, wanna do something on my laptop?"

Gary's eyes lit up. "Yes please."

On Monday, when Gary came to school, he went straight to Paul's desk, where Drew and Paul were talking about something - probably about stamps. Gary had done some thinking about what Reggie had said, and he had something to say to his friends.

"I don't like stamps and I don't get them," he said, looking at Drew and Paul, ignoring Drew's look of discomfort and Paul's scowl. "But you like stamps, and Paul collects them, so here."

Gary placed a small plastic bag on Paul's desk.

"So don't ever let me come to your house if you're just talking about stamps again."

He stuck his chin in the air, and before Drew or Paul could say anything, or even look into the bag, he marched back to his desk.

But he wasn't worried about them thinking he was being mean for what he said. Last night, he'd gone around the house and through the recycling bin and found every envelope with a stamp on it, and he'd cut out the stamps and gathered them in the plastic bag to give to Paul for his collection.

He usually had the habit of joking about what he didn't get, but he wasn't going to do that this time. For some reason, this felt different. He might not understand what was so great about stamps, but he didn't want Paul to be angry at him for not getting it.

So, like Reggie said, he was going to "just go with it" - he would collect whatever stamps he could find and give them to Paul for his collection.

He would show his friends' interests respect.

And done!

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Thanks for reading!

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