The Infamous "Those Days"
[It's gonna be one of those days, I can already tell *sigh* I have a blowoff class first thing, which means I either stare at the walls or rush through some ridiculously easy bit of bookwork and then stare at the walls, then a presentation in english for a teacher I don't really like all that much with a partner who didn't do anything, and then tests in webmastering and chemistry. And when I come home I have another half a chapter of math to do, on top of finishing Spanish and whatever homework I get today.
And as if this wasn't enough to put me in a dark mood, my computer's being evil. *rolls eyes* Don't I love mornings?
...and the rest of the day has gone /so/ much better, too *sigh* Lessee, I got ignored by three friends in ten minutes, found out a fourth is moving in two weeks or less, got a teacher mad at me because I'll be out of town Friday (something I have no control over) and missing the test in her class (again, what control over that do I have?), discovered that I get to spend the next two and a half weeks listening to a speaker whose accent I can't understand ramble on and on about STDs in a lecture I've already heard two times (not including the variants I've heard from the other seven speakers), got in trouble in english because I didn't look up some obscure name that I didn't even realize was important, spent all of seventh period trying to ignore the fact that the rest of the class had vile DVDs playing while I actually improved my project and started a new one, got stuck in the cafeteria during lunch because the library is closed due to my english teacher having her classes in there for some bizarre reason, and got stuck with the biggest bitch in my chemistry class sitting right in front of me. AND I have a million and one homework assignments to do by tomorrow morning, including but not limited to a busload of Spanish that I won't have time to do. Plus I'm falling asleep where I stand and I know I won't get to bed until late tonight because of the session.
Aren't. I. Joyful.
...In the day's good news, I did get more work done on the Webmastering "tutor site" I'm trying to set up...and since I've already heard that lecture twice before (and seven others like it) I don't have to pay that much attention, so I'll have a fair amount of time to write/read/draw/whatever else, as I already have all the notes *grin*
On to the fun part!]
Betrayal (cont'd)
It took a month and a half for Ash to stir from this second coma, and it was nearly a year before he would speak again. He grew distant from both his friends and his pokemon; he refused to see his morher or Professor Oak. (Misty let them into his room at night while he slept, but he had never found out about this.) His self-imposed silence wasn't broken until after a harrowing misadventure involving a sudden downpour and a very tall cliff nearly tore Pikachu from his grasp forever. The shock snapped him out of the black depths of his depression, and slowly he began the return to normal. He had made Misty and Brock swear never to tell either his mom or Professor Oak.
He still bore the scars, Misty knew, and in more ways than one. If you looked closely enough, you could still make out the feathery lines of the scars where his burns had long since healed. He avoided people as much as possible and had yet to aquire a new Pokemon, concentrating instead on strengthening the bonds between himself and the pokemon who already called him a friend. Most notably, his competetive spirit was completely and totally gone.
"C'mon, Brock, Ash, I'll race you to the top of the next hill!" Misty said, sprinting forward. They had played this game for years, the person in the rear challenging the others to a race; it was as second-nature to them as carrying Pikachu or Tokepi.
"You're on," Brock answered, breaking into his somehow jerky but still very fast gait that she knew so well.
Ash just grunted. "You guys go on ahead," he called after them, "I'll catch up in a bit..." In seconds, the red-head and the brunette were gone, and the young trainer was left with only Pikachu for company.
"Pika?"
"Nah, no race today," Ash answered. "I'm not in the mood."
"Piiiika..." //You're never in the mood anymore.//
Ash snorted. "More truth than fiction in that, buddy. I don't know, maybe I'd feel better if I could just go somewhere else for a while, start over with a clean slate...y'know what I mean?" The PIkachu nodded slightly. "Oh, well," Ash sighed, "not much I can do about it now." Pikachu expected him to speed up, to catch up with the others, but to its surprise the black-haired teen sat down heavily and stared listlessly at the ground.
"What'd'ya think, Pikachu?" he continued in a depressed tone. "I mean, Charizard obviously thought I screwed up. Maybe he's right. Maybe I'm nothing but a big fat failure. Maybe I should just leave, go away and let everyone else live their life like they were meant to."
"Pika! Pikapi!"
Another snort. "Right. So this is what's supposed to be? Brock and Misty are supposed to be wandering around aimlessly for the rest of their lives, just so that I'm not alone, instead of following their dreams? Charizard's supposed to be with Team Rocket? Well, I'm not too sure. I bet none of that was supposed to happen. I was never supposed to become a trainer." His voice fell, dark and dispirited. "I probably wasn't even supposed to get you."
"Pika!" Pikachu's "voice" was filled with hurt, and the electric-type protested lourly and vehemently for several minutes. Ash just looked at him sadly.
"You know it as well as I do, buddy," he said when Pikachu finally quieted down. "I mean, just look at the facts. I showed up late, almost too late. You hated me from the first. I bet you didn't even know that there was another potential trainer only a few seconds behind me, did you? It was a girl, a really pretty, really smart girl who already knew a lot about electric types...you'd've liked her a lot, I'm sure." Ash hung his head. "I saw her last time we were in Pallette Town. She's the cashier at the restaurant, doesn't own a single Pokemon... How bad did I screw up her destiny, Pikahu? And how many other people are there like her, people whose futures are ruined all because of me?"
"Piiika..."
Shaking his head, Ash stood and lifted his Pokemon to his shoulder. "We should get going. Misty and Brock are probably wondering where we are." Pikachu gripped his jacket tightly so it wouldn't fall off, and then Ash set off down the trail in his long even lope. Lengthy strides ate up the ground, and it only took a moment to reach his friends. He wasn't even winded.
Brock, however, was. And in a rather large amount of pain.
"Not the ear! Not the ear!"
"I think you and I need to go have a talk, Brock," Misty was saying, her face flushed with anger. "Waaaaaay over there."
"Uh, guys? What's going on - oh." Ash fell silent when he suddenly realized that there was a third person there, a girl he didn't recognize. She was rather short and had long black hair, rather like his own in color and texture, but instead of sticking out in unmanageable spikes hers fell straight down her back to end in flaring red tips. Long bangs streaked with the same brilliant red covered half her face. Her eyes burned with a fierce light; the same light, Ash knew, that his had once displayed. She was obviously competetive. It takes one, he thought wryly, to know one.
"Ohayoo gozaimasu!" she chirped, holding out her hand. "I'm Teae, but I go by Twitch."
"I'm Ash," he said flatly, shaking her hand and dropping it as quickly as possible.
Twitch glanced him over for a second, a look of concentration passing over her face. "That sounds familiar...I'm sure I've heard of you before. I'm a Fire trainer, by the way - how about you?"
"I, uh, I'm not really a trainer anymore," he said. "And I really didn't have any particular type when I was training. Why?"
"Just curious," Twitch replied, shrugging. Again, there was that look of concentration, visible for only the briefest of instants before it disappeared once more. "Hey, I remember now! We have a mutual friend," she explained in response to the questioning look on his face. "I think you'll remember him. Charizard, come on out!"
"Piiiika!"
"H - hush, Pikachu," Ash whispered hurriedly, taking a surprised step backward. Because standing there in front of him, right behind Twitch the Fire trainer, was his old friend and possibly enemy Charizard.
Random Quote of the Day:
Silence is the virtue of fools.
- Sir Francis Bacon
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