Ok, this one may turn out to be bad. I'm in a bit of a dour mood today, so I mightn't get this out until tomorrow. It doesn't help that the primary focus of this chapter is a love confession, which is something I'm more or less unfamiliar with (unless you count an amicable rejection like 2 years ago). So, hopefully this turns out alright, and actually comes out today. Also, something to note for those who are reading this as it came out, I changed the name of chapter 25 because I felt that it was wrong to say that the situation was may's mistake. Anyway, let's get on with it.
Chapter 42:
Language of Flowers
After ending the call with her brother and his 'best friend', May began to plan out what she was going to say to Drew. But, everytime she tried to think of something to say to him, she quickly chickened out. So instead, she spends the next month or two training up her abilities as a Blaziken Mask. Unfortunately for her, she hadn't managed to pull it off since that day with Drew. She grew more and more frustrated with this, especially since she managed to do it thrice before. When she wasn't training her Blaziken Mask powers, she was walking around the forest, talking to herself. She spent all that time rehearsing what she'd say to Drew. But as more time passed, she started to worry that Drew may have moved on. She worried that she may have taken too long to say something to him, and that it may be too late.
So, she decided to head to Fallarbor and see if she can catch Drew's latest contest entry. After she watched it, she'd catch him and talk to him about the incident in the forest. But by the time she got to Fallarbor, she was too late. The contest was already over. To make matters worse, she found out that her brother had entered it, and won. Curing herself for not being there to see this happen, she began to ask around town, hoping to find out if Drew had entered this one, and where he'd gone if so. But as it turned out, he hadn't even shown up. This got May's hopes up. Maybe he hadn't left Larousse yet. But at the same time, he also could've just missed it, like she'd done with this one. But still, with a bit hope that maybe there was still time to patch this up, May began to make her way to Larousse to speak with Drew.
Along the way, she remembered something Bonnie said in Slateport Town when Max told her about Drew giving May roses. "That's so cute, because in the language of flowers, red means-" The fact that Drew interrupted her raised May's suspicions, but she didn't comment on it at the time. Now however, she became curious as to what Bonnie was going to say. So, when she stopped in Verdanturf on her way to Larousse, she stopped off in a library and searched up what the language of flowers was. in a book on Floriography, she rifled through it, until she came upon the page on red roses. The world stood still as she read what it said. "Red Rose: a symbol of romance and love." May's heart quickened considerably. "Does this mean Drew really does like me?" she wondered to herself. Feeling elated at this prospect, May returned the book to the shelf and headed out of town, intending to get to Larousse and speak to Drew about this.
Along the way, she stops at a florist in a small town to purchase a red rose for Drew. When she goes to buy it, the woman standing at the desk gives her a knowing smile, which makes her blush. After a few more weeks of travel, during which she had to keep stopping and using her Venusaur to keep the rose alive, she finally arrives at Larousse. It's the early evening by then, and she approaches the monorail to get into the city. Only to be stopped by some league officials. "Sorry ma'am, but we can't let you in," says one of the officials. "What? Why?" May asks. "We were attacked by Team Terra a few weeks ago," another official says. "There's a very good chance that they might come back again, so we can't let you in." May begins to panic. "Was anyone hurt during that attack!?" she asks quickly. The officials shake their heads. "Thankfully no," one of them says. "But just in case, we would ask you to wait until morning before you enter." Then, they turn and leave her be. Grumbling to herself, May walks away from the monorail. Fortunately for her, there's more then one way to enter the city. At least for her.
She sneaks around to another part of the water that surrounds Larousse. Then, she releases Blaziken and Mega Evolves him. Then, he climbs onto his back and, after making sure the rose won't be burnt, orders him to use Blaze Kick to launch them into the city. Blaziken does this, and May feels the rush of wind as the two of them fly through the air. As they do, she deeply wishes that she could do this herself without struggle, but she's only been at this for just half a year, so she shouldn't be surprised that she's having some trouble with it. She spots Drew's house and has Blaziken lower the two of them gently near it. Once he does, she returns him to his ball, then walks up to the door. After making sure the rose is still alive, and hiding it behind her back, she knocks on the door.
An older woman with the same green hair as Drew answers the door. "Hello deary," she says. "You must be May." May nods. "Yes, I am," she replies. "How did you know?" The woman, who May can only assume is Drew's mother, laughs. "Well, for starters you're our Top Coordinator," she answers, which makes May laugh at how stupid of a question that was. "And for another, Drew likes to talk about you whenever he comes home." This makes May blush. "Ah," she says. "Speaking of Drew, is he here? I need to talk to him about something." Drew's mother gives her a sad smile. "Would this have something to do with what happened between you two a few months ago?" she asks. May nods. "We both made a mistake that day," she says. "I need to make it right." Drew's mother gives her a nod. "Well, as it so happens, my son is here right now," she tells her. "He's been here a lot lately. I don't think he's even entered a contest this year." May looks a bit guilty at this. Drew's mother lets her into the house and points up the stairs. "Go and make this right," she tells her. May nods, then heads up the stairs.
When she gets there, she finds a door with the words, "DREW" written on them. May approaches the door, takes a deep breath, then knocks. Inside, the sound of scuffling occurs, before Drew's voice calls out, "What is it mum? I'm a bit busy!" "It's me Drew," May calls back. "I need to talk to you." The sounds of scrambling come from the room then, and in no time at all, the door opens. Drew is standing there, looking well for someone who's spent most of the last two months inside his house. "May," he says, nervously. "What brings you here?" "I want to speak with you," she says. "And you weren't returning my calls, so I came here." Drew nods awkwardly. "I can see that," he says. "And I'm sorry about that. Truth be told, I was kinda dreading this moment." Both of them stand there awkwardly for the next few minutes.
Eventually, Drew stands to the side and lets May in. His room is orderly enough. He's got a bed, a desk, a wardrobe, and a mirror, as well as a bunch of posters of famous Top Coordinators and other pokémon on his wall. May's eye just lands on a poster that looks suspiciously like her, when Drew quickly grabs it and stuffs it in his drawer in the desk. "So," he says awkwardly, "what brings you here?" May swallows nervously. I want to talk about what happened in the forest," she admits. Drew's face darkens. "I was afraid of that," he says. "So, let's just cut to the part where I apologise and we forget that ever happened. Heck, you probably don't want to see me anymore." "May starts to panic at this. "No, no, that's not why I'm here!" she exclaims. Drew looks at her quizzically. "I came here to apologise to you," she admits. "I want to apologise for freezing like that." "What's there to be sorry for?" he asks. "I kissed you without warning, anyone would freeze at this." "But here's the thing," she admits. "I liked it. I wanted to tell you that, but you ran off, then refused to answer my calls."
Drew looks like he wants to slam his head into the wall. "You what!?" he exclaims. May nods. "I did," she admits. Then, she gets rather nervous. "It's now or never," she thinks to herself. "You know," she stutters, "I remembered Bonnie saying something about the Language of Flowers." Drew visibly freezes at this. "D-Did you now?" he asks. May nods again. "So, I looked it up," she goes on. "More specifically, I looked up what the red rose means." "Well, this is the day I die," Drew thinks to himself. But instead, May pulls out something that was behind her back. To Drew's amazement, it's a red rose. "Does this mean..?" he trails off, barely able to believe what this means. May nods. "It does," she says. "It means that I like you as well." Drew accepts the rose, then the two of them envelop each other in a tight embrace. So elated are they, that they don't think anything could ruin this perfect moment.
But of course, May's brother seems to have a keen ability to do just that. May's phone begins to ring, snapping the new couple back to the present. May pulls it out and glares at the phone, as if her glare will scare it into silence. "It's my stupid brother," she complains. "If this isn't extremely important, I'm going to give him a piece of my mind." Then, she presses answer. "You'd better have a good reason for calling Max," she says angrily as soon as she picks up. Max swears at this other end. "Shit, did I interrupt your confession to Drew?" he asks. "If I did, you can kill me later. I'll just call back and let you get back to it." May just sighs. "No you didn't," she tells him. "I already told him- Hang on, how did you know I was at Drews?" "Can you see the Battle Tower from Drew's room?" Max asks. Confused, May looks out the window and sees that she can. "Yes I can," she replies. "Why?" "Look at the window at around the centre of the tower," Max replies.
May looks back out the window and at the window that Max instructed her to. There, she sees two small figures waving at her. Drew notices too and pulls out his phone, zooming in on them with his camera. "Is that Max and Bonnie?" he asks. "Yes, that's us," Max tells them. "Bonnie and I are stuck in here." "What!?" May exclaims. Max quickly explains to her the events that led to this moment. May simply can't believe what she's hearing. "Has Brendan gone mad?" she asks. "Going is a better way of putting it," Max replies. "He seems to believe that doing this will allow him to capture a Team Terra agent with knowledge on stopping the Tremors." "By putting this city in danger?" Drew asks. "That explains the chaos that occurred here a few weeks ago." May can't believe this. "Alright," she says. "Stay where you are, we'll get you out of there." "Not like we can go anywhere else," Max replies. "But thanks."
The two siblings hang up, then May begins to scroll through her contacts list. "We're not actually going to break Max and Bonnie out of the battle tower?" Drew asks her. "No," she says. "You are." "What?!" Drew exclaims. "I'll be with Brendan, trying to talk some sense into him," May explains. "Maybe I can convince him that this is a really bad idea. But if I can't, at least I'll manage to buy you guys enough time to get out of here." At last, she finds the right number, and presses call. As she puts the phone up to her ear, Drew asks, "Who are you calling?" "A friend," May replies. "If I can get them to come here, it may increase the chances of Brendan letting Max and Bonnie go, and also allow us to stop the Tremors for good."
Yet another cliff-hanger! At least this one doesn't feel so out of place huh? I'm not sure how good that confession scene is, because I amn't very good at them. But now, May must once again save her brother, but this time, from a friend. How will this go? Come back on Thursday to find out.