Hello, all of you wonderful readers! Welcome! Whether you may or may not know, I am QuartzClaw, a writer here, and this is a brand new story that I am starting.

Now, so far, I've only been doing one-shots, but I am finally going to step out of my comfort zone and try writing a full, multi-chaptered story. I really hope I can manage to write all of it, though I'm not planning on giving up on it or anything.

So anyway, this is an AU Pokemon story, focusing largely on the anime characters, with the main focus being on Misty. There are Pokemon in this world, but they are not the main focus (funny, because it's a Pokemon fanfic). It's more a world where Pokemon are just there, but the whole world doesn't revolve around them. More similar to our world (except our world doesn't have Pokemon, but you get the point).

So anyways, I hope you all enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon in any way, shape or size, and it is going to stay that way throughout the whole story, so I'm just going to say this once and not every chapter.

Misty is not like Cinderella. She is not helpless. She does not tolerate her sisters' obnoxious behaviour, nor does she rely on a fairy godmother to suddenly pop up and magically solve her problems. And she definitely does not wait around for a prince to find her by the use of a lost glass slipper so she could lift herself to a better position. If she wants something done, she isn't afraid to get her hands dirty.

Last year's school president had been voted purely out of popularity and bribes, and had done nothing fruitful all year. This year, though, Misty is determined to become president herself and make sure the year is much more productive. Although a little backup might be required.

With her antisocial jerk of a best friend by her side, a dense accident-prone new student, a clumsy food-loving girl who insists on sharing the cafeteria table with her, an egotistical vice-president, a genius bookworm and her 'nerd club', a haughty yet popular rich kid, and an overly bubbly fashionista, as well as other new acquaintances, this might just work!

Don't Need a Glass Slipper

Chapter 1: Setting Goals

"Ugh," Misty groaned. She buried her face into her pillow, but it was no use.

"Shut up," she muttered, rolling over, clamping her pillow tightly over her ears. But she could still hear the painfully loud ringing filling her room.

That stupid alarm clock just doesn't know when to quit, does it? the ginger-head thought irritatedly as she tried to reach over to her side table. Unfortunately, the culprit that had awoken her stood tauntingly just out of reach, forcing the seventeen-year-old girl to have to leave her heavenly bed to go slam her hand on the 'off' button. She flopped back down after that, but as she had already gotten up, her eyes were refusing to comply with her wishes, and therefore preventing her from entering her sacred dreamland.

"I hate you," Misty hissed at her alarm clock, which stared smugly right back at her.

She kicked off her covers and let her feet drop off the side of her bed. Stretching, she stood up and began walking to her closet, from which she pulled out her usual jogging outfit and headed for the washroom. She hated being woken up from her slumber, which was why her sisters never dared trying, the alarm being the only one who didn't fear her wrath, but she did like going for her daily summer jog.

After washing up and changing, Misty stepped out into the cool, refreshing early seven o'clock air, and began heading down the sidewalk. She breathed in the freshness of the late summer air, which was slowly becoming cooler along with the changing season. The tree leaves were steadily shedding their green colour for yellow, orange and red, and a few had already accepted the summons of gravity and fallen to the ground.

Summer was nearly over, and with it, the holidays were ending. School was going to start in a few days' time, meaning Misty might not have enough time for her morning jogs once it did. Might as well enjoy them while they lasted.

But this year, Misty was also looking forward to school. Not because of the workload or homework or tests and exams, but because she had big plans for this year. It was her final year before graduating, and she wanted to leave her mark before she did.

By becoming school council president.

"Come on, open up already!" Misty grumbled as she impatiently tapped her foot, waiting for the door to open. She jabbed her finger at the doorbell once more.

She had completed her morning jog, showered, ignored her sisters (which took a lot of effort), grabbed breakfast, and was now standing at the doorstep of her best friend's house. Her rude, antisocial, snarky best friend, but still her best friend.

"Come on, you plum-head, open up!" Misty yelled.

He was doing this on purpose, she knew. He was the only one (other than her alarm clock) who had absolutely no fear of her temper. Yes, her sisters riled her up sometimes too, but they were careful not to push her past her limit. Not that she ever blew up at her fullest at them. No matter how much she hated their treatment of her, she couldn't get violent with them, no matter how much she tried.

"Paul Shinji, open up at once!"

Paul, on the other hand, would just treat her viciousness with smirks or a bored look, depending on how much she amused him with her creative threats. He had no fear of her at all. Not surprising, really, given the fact that he'd known her since fifth grade, and normally never seemed to be frightened by anything in general. But it still annoyed her how he purposefully got on her nerves.

"SHINJI, YOU BETTER OPEN UP OR I'LL—!" She stopped when the door began opening. "It's about tim— Oh, sorry Reggie!" She quickly went from yelling to apologizing embarrassedly as not her friend, but a man of about twenty-six opened up. Paul's older brother Reggie.

Reggie laughed amicably. "Oh, don't worry about it. Sorry for not opening up sooner."

"I thought you'd be at work," Misty muttered, feeling her cheeks flush red.

"Oh, I was just on my way," the man said. "Just needed to use the washroom first. Well, come right in! Paul's up in his room."

"Thanks!" Misty quickly got over her embarrassment and stepped in. That was the thing about Reggie. He was always so friendly and open, and from the way he spoke, you could never feel awkward around him for long, unless, of course, he was teasing you. Quite the opposite of his younger brother.

"See ya, I'll be off, then! Close the door behind me, will ya?" Reggie gave a wave as he walked outside.

"Sure thing! Bye!" Misty waved back, and then locked the door once he was gone.

"Now to give you a piece of my mind!" Misty huffed, talking to an imaginary Paul as she stomped up the stairs.

Once she reached the top, she quickly located her friend's bedroom door, which was labelled 'Paul' in fancy artistic letters, and barged in.

People who saw Paul in public would often expect his room to be dark, dull, and plain. But if they were ever to see his room in real life, they'd be surprise at just how wrong they were. The walls were white, the hardwood floor was a light brown, and light flooded in through the white curtains of the window on the wall opposite of the door, bringing brightness. The single bed on the far right hand corner, like everything else in the room, was neatly made as usual, as Paul Shinji did not tolerate messiness. But other than that, the room just looked impressive.

The reason for that being that it was practically a mini art studio. There were a few neat, organized desks in his room, each serving as a station for a different kind of art.

To the right was the drawing and sketching desk, where there were sketchbooks, papers, different kinds of pencils and colours and erasers and sharpeners among other sketching tools. There was a small bulletin board where notes and small sketches and pictures were pinned on, and several mirrors, one on the wall to the desk's right, one on the wall right in front of the desk, a small handheld mirror, and one with an adjustable stand.

The second desk was against the wall to left, the same wall where the closet was, and it was where Paul created his sculptures. The desk drawers contained boxes of clay and sculpting tools, as well as other small things like beads, toothpicks, metal wires and the like which could also be used for making sculptures. Currently, small detailed clay figurines of Pokemon stood in a straight line, looking like they had been recently created and painted.

Finally, there was the workplace at the far left corner of the room beside the closet. This was the painting station, where stood a paint stand along with several canvases. The desk was a smaller desk, as Paul mostly just used the drawers to store his different kinds of paints and paintbrushes and other paint supplies. It looked like he had finished a painting latterly, as a stunning fully painted canvas of a Charizard in action stood drying on the canvas stand.

But at the moment, Misty, who had been in the room countless times before, was not looking to be impressed.

"Paul Shinji, did you not hear me when I was calling you?!"

There he was, sitting in a black rolling chair at his drawing desk, his purple hair combed tidily so it looked slick as it framed his face. His straight, neat clothes were comprised of primly ironed black dress pants, and an equally neat grey button up shirt. The teenage boy didn't even look up, as he was too engrossed in whatever he was sketching.

"Go away," he muttered as he focused on his work.

Misty planted her hands on her hips. "Unbelievable! You don't even care that you let your friend stand right outside screaming her lungs out!"

Paul briefly lifted his left hand to give her a dismissive wave. "Later."

Misty glared at his purple head darkly, and still she got no reaction. "What are you even drawing?" she snapped.

"You."

"Me?!"

"When you were screaming, I had a sudden surge of inspiration."

"Huh?"

"See? I'm done." Paul finally straightened up and held out his sheet of paper. Misty took it from his hand, and once she saw what it was, her eyes widened and she gave him the most deathly glare she could muster.

"Y-you—! You—! Ugh!" She threw it right back at his face, which was watching her with amused, taunting eyes.

"It's not that bad, if I do say so myself," Paul commented mockingly as he took the sheet in his hand.

"You made a Gyarados with my face!"

"A quite accurate depiction of you, really."

"Oh, I am so gonna kill you!"

"Wow. So dramatic. Maybe you should give up on sports and go into theatre. I'm sure the drama club at school would love to have you... if they weren't so scared of you."

"You should be the one scared right about now!"

Paul gave a hint of a smirk as he began tidying up his desk. "I'm sending this to the art gallery," he said, waving the picture in her face.

"Don't you dare!" Misty snatched it from his grasp, crumpled it up, and tossed it into the wastebasket with more force than necessary.

"Oh look, you ruined my drawing," Paul drawled.

"I'll ruin your face in a moment!"

Paul gave a smirk and stood up, shrugging his shoulders to loosen them up and extinguish the stiffness.

"Are you going to keep looking at me like that all day?" he said, eying her scowling face amusedly.

"Ugh!" Misty finally sighed. She went over to his bed and fell back onto it.

"Don't do that," Paul said with slight irritation. "You'll mess up my bed."

"You back from Sinnoh?" Misty said, ignoring what he had just said.

"No, I'm still there. You're just hallucinating." He sat back down onto his chair.

"Haha, very funny." Misty rolled his eyes. "So how was it?"

"...Fine." His answer was blunt, straightforward, and completely neutral, devoid of the amusement it had possessed just a mere few seconds ago.

"That's your answer every year. Every summer, you go to Sinnoh. Every summer, after you come back, you say it was fine. Say something different for once."

"It was tolerable."

"Oh, I give up." Misty sighed and sat up. "You ready for school?"

"No." He leaned back in his chair. "Takes away too much time for when I could be doing something useful."

"Like entering art competitions?"

"Exactly."

Misty laughed. "Oh really, why do you even enter so many? It's like your obsessed! Sure you love art, but you enter a contest, like, every day!"

"You know the answer to that."

"Paul, you've already collected enough scholarships and prize money to get into the University of Cerulean. You don't need this much! I'd say you're all set."

"Who says I'm going to the U of C?" Paul said lazily, folding his arms behind his head and crossing his legs. "What if I said I wanted to get into one of those elite, fancy shmancy universities instead?"

Misty laughed. "Oh, as if! Paul, you hate those kinds of places. You and I both know that that's never going to happen!"

"What about you, though?"

"What about me?"

"You're hotheaded, stubborn, short-tempered, violent, you constantly threaten the student population, and did I mention that half the school is terrified of you?"

"Gee, thanks." Misty rolled her eyes. "What's your point? Last I checked, personality has nothing to do with getting into a university."

"My point is," he said, rolling his chair over to where she was sitting, "how exactly are you planning to get everyone to vote for you to be student council president this year?"

Misty froze. "How did you know about that?"

"About what?"

"About me planning to become president?"

Paul rolled his eyes. "Oh, I don't know, maybe because you've been constantly ranting last year about how much you hate the president for not doing anything fruitful all year, and how it would be different once you took his place."

"Well, I never really meant it then, but I made up my mind this summer while you were in Sinnoh. I was planning on telling you today, actually."

"Oh, I'm sorry, did I ruin the surprise?" Paul drawled tauntingly. "If you tell me now, I can act surprised if you want."

"Oh, shut up," Misty said, taking his pillow from his bed and playfully tossing it at his face.

"Oh great, now you've messed up my bed," Paul muttered, placing the pillow back in its original position and carefully straightening it.

"Whoops." Misty rolled her eyes, not feeling sorry at all.

"So what's your campaigning plan?" Paul said, getting back on topic.

"Well, I was planning on making posters..."

"Like everyone else," Paul interjected.

"...and go from class to class, giving small talks on what I plan to do..." Misty continued, ignoring her friend's interruption.

"What else is new?" Paul muttered.

"...and maybe, um..." Misty trailed off as she tried to think of her next idea, but when it became clear she didn't have one, Paul began clapping mockingly.

"Bravo," he said sarcastically. "You will definitely win the elections this year, Misty. With your magnificent, unique plans, of course you will!"

"Shut up," Misty said, sulking. "I'll win it. You just wait!"

"I'll enjoy watching you fail."

"Well, it's going to be one disappointing show for you, because I am not going to fail!"

"Yeah. Sure."

Oh, I'll show you! I'll become student council president! You'll see!

First chapter, completed! Yay!

Now, before you guys ask about this story's shippings, I should say that I am actually not a shipper in general, but you, as readers, can view my writing in whatever way you want. What I prefer working on, though, is friendship, because I feel friendship is just such a beautiful and powerful thing. So I want to put the most emphasis on friendship bonds for this story.

Now, updating. I honestly have no idea what my updating schedule will be like. I'm going to be very busy this month, and right after, school will be starting up again, and I know it's only going to make everything even busier. Not to mention I have my already-existing fic I'm working on, so I'll need to make a balance between this one and that.

So really, I'll try my best to get you guys updates whenever I can, but I can't make a solid schedule just yet. Though I hope I can get the next chapter ready for posting by next week. So wait for me until then!

So anyways, what did you guys think? I would love to know through reviews. And any tips on improvement and constructive criticism is always welcome!

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