Later on in the day, shortly after the final bell that dismissed everyone from their classes, May dashed out of her class and headed right for the computer lab. As she walked in, she was relieved to find Dawn talking with Clemont. Both of them noticed her entrance and waved her over.

"Hey, May!" Dawn smiled.

"Hi, Dawn. Clemont thank you so much for helping us out with this." May answered, smiling back.

"No problem. I'll do the best I can for you." the blonde boy answered.

"So what do you need from us?" May wondered.

"You have a printed copy of the article?"

"Yeah." she nodded as she pulled the paper out of a folder in her backpack.

"Perfect. Since Dawn mentioned you guys want to keep this quiet, this'll work better than searching for the article on the school computer. So just put the paper in the scanner and we can get started." he explained.

"I got this." Dawn piped up as she took the paper from May and followed Clemont's instructions. After giving the machine a moment to scan the document, the article then appeared on the smartboard screen in Clemont's editing software.

"Good. Let's get started." Clemont nodded as he proceeded to sit at the computer and began working to clear up the image digitally. The girls waited patiently for him to work, lowering their voices so they could talk without disturbing him.

"So far so good." May whispered.

"Yup. Glad he agreed to help." Dawn agreed.

"Speaking of, what do I owe him for his help?" the brunette wondered.

"Heh. Actually, I'm the one that owes him…" Dawn sweatdropped.

"You do? What did he want in return?" May wondered, hoping she didn't put her friend in an awkward position.

"I'll need to set him up with one of my cheerleading teammates…" she chuckled.

"Oh...which cheerleader if you don't mind my asking?" May wondered.

"Heh...Korrina." Dawn answered, making May nod in understanding. Korrina was a few grades ahead of them and was one of the peppiest members of the cheer team. So it wasn't a surprise that one of the guys in their class had a thing for her. As she chuckled to herself, a thought crossed her mind and she turned towards Clemont.

"Hey Clemont, did you attend the royal dance last week?" she wondered, hoping for some kind of coherent answer. Luckily for her, she finally got one.

"I did. Everyone did." he nodded as he continued to work on the picture. May's heart swelled with hope as Dawn's eyes widened in surprise.

"Including me?" May continued.

"Yeah you were there." he confirmed.

"Who was I with? Did I have a date or something?" she pushed further, getting so excited that Clemont actually paused with a nervous sweatdrop.

"May I'll be honest, I wasn't paying much attention to your group that night. I think I remember you hung out a lot with your group of friends. But that's really all I know." he admitted, bringing May back down from her excitement.

"Oh…of course I'm sorry." she apologized. She guessed it was too much to expect an acquaintance to have intimate knowledge of her friend circle and dating life. She made a mental note not to let her excitement get too overboard for the future as Clemont returned to his work. After a bit longer, he leaned back from the computer and took a deep breath.

"Everything alright?" Dawn asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I think that's as clear as the picture is going to get." he answered.

"Let's see it." May declared. Clemont nodded and presented the picture of the car again on the board. It's much clearer than it was before, meaning the girls could see it was a smaller-sized car with a darker color paint job. As they searched for the license plate, however, it quickly became apparent that it had been ripped off the car in the accident, meaning it was not visible in the picture. "Damnit…no plate."

"Well, at least we know more about what kind of car it was and that's good. Thanks for trying Clemont." Dawn countered.

"You're welcome. Sorry, there isn't more information in it. But May did you bring your phone? Dawn mentioned you wanted to find some deleted files?" Clemont reminded them.

"Oh right!" May realized as she quickly pulled it out of her pocket and handed it to him. "Here."

"Great. Let me hook it up to the computer and we'll take a look." he nodded as he plugged the phone into a cable coming from the computer.

"Thank you so much Clemont." May smiled.

"No problem." he nodded as he connected the phone to the computer and dove into the files on the screen. "Anything, in particular, you're looking for?"

"Any text messages or phone calls made after September 1st." she elaborated.

"Or pictures." Dawn chimed in.

"Alright. I'll see what I can do." he nodded as he began scanning through the phone's files.

"How long will it take do you think?" May wondered.

"It depends on how badly someone wanted to get rid of the files. If they're in the phone's recycling bin not long at all, if they were completely deleted it could take hours." Clemont admitted as he kept tapping away on the keyboard.

"Let's hope for the easy path then…" Dawn mumbled.

"Well, your hope has been at least partially answered." he announced. "Looks like they missed a few things in the recycle bin."

"Let's see it then." May decided.

"Looks like the first one is a picture." With a few mouse clicks, Clemont restored the picture to May's phone and pulled it up on the screen. The picture was of May with Ash, Serena, Chloe, and Chloe's boyfriend Goh, all posing for the picture at the royal dance. May held her heart slightly, both happy and sad to see a picture of herself and all her friends as they used to be. She missed it so much. Dawn could tell that the image was bittersweet for May, so she stepped in.

"Well, it at least confirms everyone was there with you. So one of them has to be the driver." she assured the brunette.

"Yeah…" May sighed before looking at Clemont. "Is there anything else in there?"

"Looks like there are some texts here too." he nodded. "Partial texts anyway."

"Let's see them." she said, steeling herself for more emotions to come through. Clemont nodded and with a bit more work, he was able to pull a brief text conversation onto the screen.

"Looks like this is from the first week of September." Dawn commented.

"With Serena…?" May wondered as she started reading the texts.

Serena: So you're finally going to tell him?

May: Yeah I have to. He's my best friend and he has to know the truth.

Serena: You know you're going to have to explain what happened between you two this morning first or he won't listen right?

May: I know. I mean it wasn't what it looked like. He has to listen right?

Serena: Right. It was just one kiss.

May: Thanks for helping Serena. You're a great friend.

Serena: Of course. Just remember he wouldn't have gotten upset if he didn't care about this kind of stuff. Especially when it comes to you.

May: You're right. I'll let you know how it goes.

Serena: Sounds great. Good luck girl.

May: TTYL.

"Whoa…" Dawn gasped as she looked at May. "Sounds like something major was going on between you and Ash…"

"Sounds like it…but it didn't sound good." May answered. "It sounded like he was upset with me…"

"Well, Serena mentioned something about a kiss. Maybe that has something to do with it?" Dawn suggested.

"Probably…but a kiss with who? I'm not exactly the type to go around and kiss people randomly…" May pointed out. "And why would that make Ash upset?"

"Maybe this has something to do with why Ash is being weird." Dawn offered. May thought it over carefully until a surprising thought crossed her mind.

"Maybe…maybe Drew is somehow involved?"

"Think so?"

"He did ask me out yesterday…could the kiss have something to do with him?"

"Maybe…but why would you and Drew be kissing?"

"I have no idea…" she gulped, growing more nervous. "Clemont is there anything more to this conversation?"

"I'm afraid not. Unfortunately, the rest was deleted with some kind of complete data wipe app and will be harder to get. If I can at all." he explained.

"Please try…anything at all will be helpful…" May begged.

"I''ll do all I can." he promised as he continued working. May and Dawn waited with bated breath as he worked, each minute they waited feeling like an hour. Finally, he spoke up again. "Ok. I think I've recovered a partial picture."

"Partial?" Dawn inquired.

"The data scrub software has badly degraded it. I'm not sure how much of it will actually be visible." he explained.

"It's better than nothing." May announced. Clemont nodded and pulled up a heavily distorted picture onto the projector. At first, the girls couldn't tell what they were looking at and Clemont continued doing all he could to enhance the picture quality. Slowly but surely some of the picture came into focus and after a moment, May began to make out the contents of the picture. It looked to be a picture of her and Ash posing for the camera with ice cream cones in hand. Both of them looked happy and close just as they had always been before and a small smile crossed her lips.

"Aw. You guys are so cute." Dawn giggled.

"He's such a dork…" May whispered fondly. Gosh, she missed him more than she could even say. Dawn looked closer at the picture and tilts her head a bit.

"You know, I know you guys hang out by yourselves all the time...but if I didn't know any better I'd think that was...an ice cream date." she commented, making May blush.

"Dawn come on…we do stuff like this all the time." she brushed her friend off.

"I know but we are on a clue hunt here. This could be proof that you did manage to confess your feelings to him like you wanted to." she suggested, deepening May's blush as she remember her promise to herself to confess to Ash when school started.

"Friends go out for ice cream too…besides if I had then why would I have had that conversation with Serena? I was going to talk to him right away." May pointed out.

"Not sure. But we gotta consider all possibilities." Dawn reminded her.

"Anything more Clemont?"

"Another partial picture." he answered as he pulled up another picture. With a bit more cleanup, they see another badly distorted picture, this time of May and Ash laying on a couch, which May recognized as the one in his living room at his house. It looked like they were most likely watching a movie while Ash had his back resting against the arm of the couch while she is resting her back and head against his chest. May's entire face lit up in a vibrant blush. She knew they were close, but they had never done that before. At least, not that she could remember.

"W-Why would we take a picture of that…?" she stammered.

"Considering I don't think either of you is holding the camera, I don't think either of you did…" Dawn pointed out. "Serena or Chloe probably sent it to you after they took it...I mean it looks innocent enough since you guys are just watching a movie...but that definitely is a point in favor of you did tell him how you felt…"

"When uh…when was that taken?" May nervously asked Clemont.

"Looks to have a time stamp of September 10th." he answered.

"That's only a little over a week after your talk with Serena…" Dawn realized.

"Well…either way it looks like whatever fight we were having was resolved…" May commented. She glanced over when she heard Clemont again working on the computer keyboard. "You found something else?"

"This is the last thing I think I'm going to be able to get you. I just found part of a voicemail." he announced.

"Awesome!" Dawn grinned.

"It's also badly degraded, but we should be able to listen to some of it." he explained as he hit play. A loud static sound comes through the computer speakers, but as they listened closely, the girls could barely make out Ash's voice in the recording.

"Hey, May. Just calling to let you know I'm on my way. I'll see you soon. Love you." his voice informed them before cutting out completely. May's entire face lit up in a deep blush as Dawn's jaw fell open. Both girls were silent for a few moments before Dawn finally found her voice again.

"...Oh yeah you definitely told him...and he definitely reciprocated…" she commented, not helping May's current state of shock. The brunette took a few minutes to calm herself down with some deeper breaths before responding.

"If that's true…then why is he avoiding me now?" she wondered.

"That's a big part of the mystery. Clemont when was that voicemail from?" Dawn questioned him.

"Looks like it was the day of the dance." he replied.

"The mystery continues…" May muttered. "Is there anything else you can get?"

"I'm afraid not. Everything else is too badly degraded to be recovered." he informed them.

"Well, thanks so much for your help. You have no idea what this means to me." May said, giving him a genuinely grateful smile.

"You're welcome May. I hope it helps." he nodded. She then proceeded to give him a quick hug.

"It sure does." she whispered. Clemont blushed hard as she let him go, and both girls giggled a little at his reaction. Clemont was known for getting very flustered around pretty girls.

"See you around Clemont. Thanks again." Dawn chimed in.

"N-No problem…" he stumbled as he gave May her phone back. Both girls giggled again as they grabbed their things and headed off towards Dawn's car.

"Alright. So now we know that you and Ash began a relationship last month." Dawn recapped.

"Yeah…but I'm guessing it went sour since he's avoiding me now…" May sighed, holding her heart. Dawn placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it comfortingly.

"We don't know that May...Clemont said that voicemail was the day of the dance. And we saw a picture of you two at the dance. It didn't look like you were fighting in any kind of way." she reminded her friend.

"I guess…" she said, trying to remain hopeful. "But that just raises even more questions about how we got to where we are now…"

"Yeah." Dawn nodded. "But I have noticed something though."

"Noticed what?" May wondered.

"I'm starting to see a pattern here. You said that the two people acting the most strange were Ash and Drew. And now all of the evidence we've gathered so far points to some big drama between the three of you." she explained, catching May's attention.

"Come to think of it…you're right." she realized. Everyone was being weird no doubt, but those two were being the oddest. Drew showing interest in her, but Ash wanting nothing to do with her. Both of these things were so out of character for the both of them that it was impossible to ignore. Add to that the new evidence they had of relationships and turmoil during September, it wasn't unreasonable to assume that the two of them were deeply involved in this cover-up.

"Maybe that's where we should focus our attention next." Dawn offered. "We just need to do it in a way that they don't suspect anything."

"Well…there is one way." May commented, taking in a nervous breath that caught Dawn's attention. "I could agree to Drew taking me to homecoming…"

"What?!" Dawn gasped.

"It's obvious that Drew thinks that us going out is "what's best for me" like everyone else does. So he wouldn't suspect me accepting his invitation as anything other than that. And it could also give you the opportunity to get some evidence from him if he is involved." she explained. She didn't like the idea of going out with Drew any more than Dawn did. But she didn't have any other ideas at the moment.

"Well…I guess if you think you can. I just know how much you wanted to go with Ash to homecoming this year…" Dawn commented with a hint of concern.

"It's not like I'm actually into Drew. It's just to get some answers." she replied, trying to convenience herself as much as she was Dawn of her decision.

"Well, it's of course your call." Dawn said, though obviously still hesitant. May took a deep breath in and out, thinking it over one more time before making a firm decision.

"I'll do it." she declared.

"Hope this works…" Dawn whispered.

"Me too." she mumbled to herself.

The next day rolled around and as May arrived in the parking lot, she saw Dawn pull into the school and park before hopping out. May waved her friend over and they both met up in front of the school doors.

"Still holding up ok?" Dawn asked carefully.

"Aw well as I can be." May replied. "For now, the first step is to find Drew."

"Shouldn't be too hard." Dawn shrugged. Suddenly, as if he had been waiting for Dawn's cue, the girls saw Drew pull up into the parking lot in his own car nearby. He was hard to miss, as his family was almost as rich as Dawn's. And their tastes in high-end merchandise was far more flamboyant. Taking one more deep breath for courage, May proceeded to run towards his car as he stepped out and locked the door.

"Drew?" May asked carefully, drawing his attention to her.

"Oh. Morning May." he greeted her, flashing her a charming and friendly smile. She could see why so many of their other classmates were interested in him. He was without a doubt a handsome man and even just his smile was enough to make her blush slightly. But she quickly shook it off and tried to remain focused. "Still feeling ok?"

"A bit better." she admitted honestly.

"Glad to hear it." he smiled again. Summoning all her courage, May continued the conversation.

"Actually I…I've thought it over and I'd like to be your date for homecoming…if the offer is still on the table." she said carefully. To her relief, Drew's smile got a bit brighter and he didn't seem at all phased by her hesitation.

"Really? That's great May." he replied. May was about to sigh in relief, but before she could he suddenly kissed her cheek, prompting her to blush and freeze in place. "I'll pick you up around 7 on Friday ok?"

"R-Right…" she stammered. He smiled at her and kissed her cheek one more time.

"I look forward to it. I'm sure you'll look beautiful." he complimented her, doing nothing but increasing the amount of red currently visible on her cheeks.

"A-And I'm sure you'll look…very handsome." she struggled to reply, trying not to be too flirty. She did want answers from him, but at the same time, she didn't want to lead him on and hurt him. She'd have a very fine line to walk come dance night, but that was a bridge she'd worry about later.

"Thanks." Drew chuckled. "We'll talk more later."

"Right…see you." May whispered before she quickly walked off and rejoined Dawn around the corner, who hadn't been watching out of respect.

"Well?" the bluenette asked eagerly.

"I have a date…" May informed her.

"Then we need a plan for how you can find any information he might have." Dawn announced. "If he had evidence, where do you think it'd be?"

"Heh. Dawn, we're teenagers. We keep virtually everything on our phones." May chuckled as they headed inside towards their lockers.

"So maybe some text messages or voice mails. Or maybe even a-" before Dawn could finish her thought, she was stopped short when someone else who wasn't paying attention to where they were walking ran right into May.

"Eek!" May yipped.

"Oof!" the person groaned as he regained his footing. "Ow...I'm so sorr- M-May...?"

"A-Ash…?" May gasped as she looks up, allowing their eyes to meet fully. They both stood still, neither one speaking nor breaking eye contact. Dawn dared not speak, though there wasn't much threat of that as she had no idea what she'd even say in this awkward situation. May however, desperate to try anything to get him to talk to her, decided to try and speak up again. "Hi…"

"I-I…" the raven-haired boy stammered. May looked at him hopefully, but that was when both he and Dawn noticed Drew entering the school behind May. Once he noticed Ash with May and Dawn, his eyes narrowed into a glare and Ash visibly flinched in fear. "I-I have to go...!"

"Wait!" May called but Ash quickly darted off down the hall and escaped into the nearby stairwell without a second look back at her. May's heart fell sadly as Drew walked over to the girls, placing a hand on May's shoulder which finally alerted her to his presence.

"Everything ok over here?" he asked with a hint of concern in his voice. Dawn raised an eyebrow, having witnessed the silent interaction between the two boys as May looked back at Drew.

"Yeah, it's just…I don't understand why he's doing this…he's always been so fearless and reckless…and we've always been so…" she stopped short and sighed, knowing she couldn't continue to think like this if she wanted Drew to believe that she was really interested in going out with him.

"I wouldn't know May. I really don't know him." Drew shrugged.

"Right…sorry…" she said quietly.

"Stay safe. I'll catch up with you later." he promised her as he gave her shoulder a squeeze before heading to class. Dawn watched him go with a curious look that drew May's attention.

"Hm…"

"What's wrong?" she wondered.

"There's definitely some serious tension between those two." her friend commented.

"How so?" May asked.

"As soon as Drew saw Ash near you he got super angry. And once Ash saw Drew he bolted away like he was terrified." Dawn explained, making May's eyes widen.

"Really? Why would he have done that? Ash would never run from anything. Even if he was going to do something stupid like fight against a Tyranitar. Why would seeing Drew make him bolt like that…?" she wondered.

"I don't know. Since you've been friends with both of them you'd know of a reason better than I would. Have they ever really been in contact?" Dawn suggested.

"Never…they've always run in different crowds…" May replied with a shake of her head.

"Well whatever the reason is, that tension I saw tells me they've been talking a lot more since your accident." Dawn deduced.

"I have to get Drew's phone…there has to be some kind of evidence on there to help explain all this." May said, feeling more determined to find some answers.

"Then let's plan out your date." Dawn nodded.

To be Continued...