Sorry that this one is so short. As with many of my other chapters that have been shorter than average, I found the places where I ended them to be good places to end them.
Only 150 days until election day, and I'm really excited; it'll be my first time voting. Thank all of you for 2,500+ views, and enjoy.
It wasn't that Ash disliked exercise; on the contrary, it had often been possible to find him running around the neighborhood in Twinleaf Town, getting in a good workout. That wasn't the reason he was dreading gym class.
The reason he was dreading it was because he wasn't the most athletic. He had a difficult time in sports that required hand-eye coordination; in dodgeball, for instance, he was typically one of the first players out. In baseball, he was a one-for-ten hitter. And basketball? Forget it.
If it's dodgeball, I swear, I am going to embarrass myself so badly that it's not even going to be funny.
Finding the gym was easy. All he had to do was to follow the signs that had been placed on the wall, and they gave him a very simple path indeed. He didn't know if there would be anyone he recognized in this class with him, but he somehow doubted it. It was a fairly large university, after all.
As soon as he entered the gym, he was amazed at what it held.
In addition to being a basketball court, there was a climbing wall in one corner, one that was probably thirty or forty feet tall. In one corner, there were large foam balls in every color of the rainbow, a rack with basketballs, pinnies to identify which team the players were on, and belts with sashes in red and yellow. Exactly what purpose the belts served, he wasn't sure.
"Okay" the teacher said. This teacher was a male Blaziken who stood at more than six feet tall. In addition, his arms were quite burly, suggesting that he worked out a great deal. "I'm Mr. Carroll, and I'm the gym teacher here at Greater Pastoria University. We have a climbing wall here, among other things, and it is my hope that everybody here enjoys the facilities that we have prepared".
I certainly will, Ash thought. He'd only been rock climbing once or twice in his life, but he knew the basics.
"We will not, however, be rock climbing today" Mr. Carroll said. "Instead, we are going to begin with a classic...dodgeball".
Oh, great, Ash thought bitterly. Just like I thought. I'm dead meat.
"You will be divided into two teams", the Blaziken told them. "Which have already been chosen".
Some of the other students, whom Ash could see included Serena (She's in this class as well? Wow, it's a small school, I guess), audibly sighed in response. Clearly, they had been wanting to pick their best friends to be on their team, or those they perceived to be good players.
Mr. Carroll went through the list of names, most of which Ash didn't recognize. He did notice that he was placed on the opposite team as Serena, which was something that gave him mixed feelings.
Do I want to play against her as an enemy?
Ooh, another admission of LOVE. You're in love with her, aren't you?
No!, Ash thought desperately, but his mind wouldn't listen. His mind started chanting that he was in love, and that nothing was going to change that, but Ash couldn't stand to listen.
In order to distract himself, he took a spot on his side of the gym. He saw that Serena was staring aggressively at him, like a Houndoom about to pounce on a Vulpix.
She sees me as prey, Ash thought. I'm still dead meat.
Soon enough, Mr. Carroll blew his whistle, and the game had begun.
Ash's strategy in dodgeball was typically to focus on evading rather than attacking. He wasn't a very good thrower, and, besides, someone from the other side might catch it, in which case he would be out. He generally only got aggressive when he was one of the last few players left on his side.
It didn't take long, this time, for that to become the case. Despite his teammates' best efforts, it wasn't long until most of them had been eliminated from the field of play, taking seats on the bench to the side.
Now, it was just Ash and a tan, brown-haired boy with him. This boy was a couple of inches taller than Ash, and he definitely looked stronger and more athletic.
"I've got this" the boy said. "I'm going to get the last three on that team. You just run and try to avoid the balls. Got that?"
Ash nodded, running as quickly as he could away from the line of fire.
It didn't work.
Halfway across the gym, one of the balls that had been thrown managed to nick Ash in the side. It didn't come into contact with a very large part of his body; however, that was still enough for him to be out.
Ash took his seat on the side of the gym and waited for the match to finish.
This tan boy was really good at the game. Within a minute of Ash being put out of the game, the tan boy was able to catch two balls, putting two of the three remaining players on the other team out of the game.
Now, it was just this boy versus some girl on the other team. The boy stepped closer to the line, clearly trying to intimidate the girl. Undaunted, the girl threw a ball at the boy, who was able to get out of the way at the last moment.
"I'll get you!" the boy responded loudly, making moves to get away from the girl. One thing was clear: He wasn't going to take losing this game lying down. He was going to fight like hell in order to win.
It wasn't long until the boy was able to hit the girl with a red ball, meaning that his team won the game. He went back to the rest of the team and high-fived all of them.
"Nice one, Brock!" Mr. Carroll said. "That was quite impressive. You just beat the last three of them all on your own".
"It was nothing" Brock replied. "I eat guys like them for breakfast".
The members of Brock's team, including Ash, laughed, but the losing team did not laugh. This wasn't surprising, but it did show just how hard they were taking losing.
There were two more games of dodgeball played that period, and, in both of them, Brock was able to lead the team to victory. Ash felt like asking the tan boy his secret, but he didn't think that would get him anywhere.
Besides, he thought, is that really something he would tell me? I feel like it might not be.
After gym was over, Ash was sweating a great deal. Unfortunately, there were no showers nearby, at least not that he could tell, but he decided that that was all right. He could shower when he got home, and he would no longer be sticky with sweat after a while, anyway.
He went over to the cafeteria, which was a fairly large room that took some effort in order to find. Once he had found it, however, he was amazed that he hadn't been able to see it before.
Really, it was almost impossible to miss. With the icon being a fork and knife, the usual symbol for dining, it was pretty obvious what it was.
Ash grabbed a plate and looked over what there was to eat. There must have been dozens of options: spaghetti piled high with meatballs, pizza so greasy that you could practically feel your arteries clogging as you were eating it, fried chicken and potatoes, sandwiches with all the fixings, hamburgers, hot dogs, fruit tarts….the list went on and on.
After deciding that he'd get a sandwich on a baguette with some vegetables on it, he found a table with Dawn, Lucas, and Serena were sitting. He decided to join them, because that just seemed like the logical thing to do.
"Hey, Ash" Lucas said, sounding rather indifferent to the fact that his friend had just joined the table.
That made Ash feel a little insulted. He doesn't want to sit next to me? Or is he just not excited about it? Either way…
"Hey, Lucas. Hey, Dawn. Hey, Serena" Ash replied, sitting down next to the rest of them.
The food was pretty good; not the best he'd ever tasted, but it was very far from being the worst. As he ate, Ash listened in on the conversation taking place between Lucas, Dawn, and Serena.
"So...there's a nature retreat here a couple of weeks from now" Dawn said eventually, taking a bite of pizza.
"Really?" Ash asked. "That sounds pretty cool".
"Yeah. We're going to be staying in cabins, and they'll have all sorts of fun activities there. It's going to be a very good time indeed".
"What kinds of activities?" Serena asked.
"There will be rock climbing, hiking, canoeing, kayaking, ziplining...yeah, it's going to be pretty amazing. Those are all things I quite enjoy".
"I'm not surprised" Lucas replied. "You've always seemed quite outdoorsy to me".
"Thanks" Dawn said. "Yeah, I really am. I'm just hoping that the weather cooperates, because I don't know how much I would enjoy it in the rain".
"How much does it cost?" Ash asked. He knew that such trips were not cheap, and he didn't particularly want to know, but he'd asked because...he just wanted to ask.
"It's two hundred and fifty dollars per person" Dawn replied.
"Then that's no problem" Serena said. "You know that my parents will be able to foot the bill for all four of us. As for permission slips, we are all eighteen, aren't we?"
Dawn, Lucas, and Ash all nodded.
"Then we don't need our parents to sign them. We can do all of that ourselves. And, like I said, my parents can pay it".
At first, Ash felt bad for all of the students here who would not be able to afford to go on the trip, at all that they would be missing out on. Then, he realized that, if one couldn't afford to go on the trip, they probably couldn't afford to go to this school.
After all, Greater Pastoria University was expensive. Many students were only able to go on account of the fact that they had a scholarship. Otherwise, the student population would have been a lot smaller than it was.
For a while, they just ate their food, and nobody talked too much. Eventually, Lucas was the one to break the silence.
"We've got two periods left" he said. "Just Ancient History of Sinnoh and Creative Writing for me".
Ash looked at Lucas, wide-eyed. "Are you kidding?"
The boy in the beret looked confused. "No, I'm not. What makes you say that?"
"Because that's exactly what I have" Ash replied. "Ancient History of Sinnoh, then Creative Writing".
"I've got Ancient History of Sinnoh", Serena said, "for fifth period. But I don't have creative writing for sixth. I guess we've got three of us together; that's pretty nice".
"It is" Lucas said.
Ash became aware of just how much he enjoyed these people. Yeah, he'd known them for less than a week, but he already felt close to them. He already felt a connection to them that he rarely felt for others.
It wasn't that Ash was antisocial, far from it. However, he often didn't enjoy talking to others in person as much as most other people did. It just wasn't something that he liked to do.
Eventually, the clock hit three minutes to one. "We should probably get going" Serena said. "I don't have classes with any of you, but I'll see you at my car at 3:03. You got that?"
Wow, I guess Serena really likes to be exact, Ash thought. If she thinks that she has to schedule her life down to the minute...can't say I blame her. A girl that hot has got to be really busy socially.
And there it was again: At the slightest mental admission from Ash that Serena was attractive, his mind was once again hounding him for it. As he walked to his next class, he tried to get his mind off of it, but it just wasn't working.
Well, it's not as though I'm going to date her, he told himself. I'm just saying, she looks quite good. I can see why someone would WANT to date her.
He arrived in his Ancient History of Sinnoh class, where he found that an elderly man was the teacher. He looked so old that he should have retired, but Ash respected his decision to continue teaching. One had to admit, even if they didn't agree with him staying on this long, that it was quite impressive of him.
The man was of average height, with a long, thin face and glasses. His gray hair was very thin and non-existent in places. He was probably in his late seventies, but it was hard to tell for sure.
"Hello", he said to the class. "My name is Mr. Lucas, and I'm the teacher of Ancient History of Sinnoh. In this class, you will learn about our great region's history, including the many centuries of war that occurred before we arrived here. As all of you know, you are lucky to be alive today; many generations of teenagers did not live to be your age before they were conscripted into military service. In fact…".
Mr. Lucas droned on and on. Even though his last name was the same of one of our protagonists' first names, said protagonist was lying back in his chair, staring up at the ceiling. In Ash's opinion, that screamed, "I'm not interested!"
It was so boring that, at one point, Ash found himself closing his eyes. He opened them quickly, not wanting to doze off here. As difficult as that was made by just how boring the talk was, 'he was determined that he was going to stay awake during the whole of this class period.
After an extremely dull forty-five minutes, Mr. Lucas said, "All right. Class is dismissed for today. Homework is to write one thousand words on what I just told you".
Ash had zoned out so totally that he didn't know if he could have written a hundred words. That was the point he was at. As much as he hoped he'd be able to get help from Lucas or Dawn on it, there was no evidence that either had been paying any more attention.
All three of us are in dire straits, homework-wise, Ash thought. I'd be lucky to make it through all of this work before tomorrow. But I have to. I just have to.
The next day was going to be a nightmare. And it was only just beginning.
Responses to reviews:
Amourshipper35: I hope you enjoyed the second half of Ash's first day of school. And yeah, he does get a lot of exercise; he just doesn't like organized gym class. At least, not in this story.
Guest: Well, you got Brock. :)
Opc3: Well, you'll have to see.