CHAPTER 9

A Very Long Day

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Paul and Dawn followed the little girl they saved earlier at the town square, even though they didn't like the idea of coming with her to meet her parents, her tight grips and persistence made them follow.

The little girl led them towards a big house, Paul and Dawn stared at the huge building she led them to. It was made out of wood and stones, but instead of the fresh brown color that wood usually had or even paint that gives houses their beautiful images.

They were shocked to see that the big house was just an old mansion, the wood were really old and worn out and gave out a gray color and appeared dusty in all sides, and the rocks had a few molds growing on them as cobwebs can be seen in some of the corners of the old house, giving it the impression of a haunted house.

"Not much of a pretty sight, is it?" The little girl became embarrassed as the two couldn't even say a word on what they saw.

Paul stared at the little girl and soon he gazed at the dress she was wearing, it had a few rips at the ends and a white patch that seemed to cover something and glanced at her slippers afterwards. He could identify her that she came from a poor family.

"Oh yeah, " The little girl broke the silence, looked at the two and gave her usual cheerful smile, "I haven't introduced myself yet have I? My name's Alicia."

"Nice to meet you Alicia, my name's Dawn." The blue-haired girl shook her hand that was currently in her tight grip lightly.

"Wow, Dawn, that's a nice name." Alicia's eyes suddenly became sparkly as her face got closer to hers, admiring her beautiful face and eyes as Dawn could only fake a laugh.

"How about you, what's your name mister?" Alicia stopped and then came closer and looked at Paul blankly as he did the same to her.

"Paul." Paul finally said his name after a few seconds of staring as Alicia's eyes became sparkling again.

"Wow, Paul, sounds like the name of a prince in shining armor." Suddenly, she imagined the lavender-haired boy as a prince wearing those majestic medieval armors and riding a white steed. Until a voice snapped her back to reality.

"Hey Alicia dear, who are your new friends?" A female voice said and caught everybody's attention as all looked at a woman standing in front of the door.

"Mom!" Alicia quickly ran towards her mother. They looked at her and quickly identified her long hair that reached up to her waist to have the same color as Alicia had and also the same emerald eyes as they approached and introduced themselves.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Dawn." Dawn raised her hand towards her, prompting her to shake hands with Dawn.

"How about you, young man? What's your name?" The mother released the handshake afterwards and glared at Paul with a cheerful smile on her face.

"Paul." He looked the other way around since he didn't like people smiling at him.

"Mommy! These two saved me from a bad man earlier." Alicia loudly said as she began to tell her everything that happened today.

"Oh my, " Her mother could only say a few words as she listened intently to every detail she had said.

"I must thank you all for saving my daughter. My name is Sally by the way." She said as she bowed down to the two.

"Really, it's nothing at all." Dawn said while she raised and waved her hands sideways.

"Come in, the two of you must be hungry."

"Uhh… that won't be necessary Ma'am…" Dawn said but Sally suddenly grabbed her hand and Paul's and headed inside the house.

"Really, I insist!"

Then, suddenly they heard growls coming from both of their stomachs as they blushed in embarrassment.

"See, at least your stomachs are telling the truth."

The two sighed in unison, she was going to make them come inside whether they like it or not and the growls gave them away. Her strong grip prevented them from escaping and her strong muscles pulled their whole weights together.

"Now we know where that kid got that persistence from." Paul whispered to her as they got dragged inside the house.

Dawn, upon hearing that statement, chuckled a bit and gave a big smile to him, causing Paul to blush as he got a closer look on Dawn's cheerful face for the first time.

"What's wrong?" Dawn's smile immediately disappeared as she noticed Paul looking at her as Paul immediately shook his head and looked away.

"N-nothing."

Dawn said nothing afterwards as the two were led to the inside of the house. It was quite big in the inside, although it shared much resemblance in the outside, there will still some cobwebs present in those unreachable areas in the ceiling usually, old furnitures that looked like it were on the brink of breaking.

"It's not much, " Sally broke the silence brought by her two guests as they were looking around the insides of this old house of theirs. Dawn looked around with her mouth opened a bit, while Paul stared at the furnitures a bit while retaining his emotionless state.

"…It's not much." She sighed as she led them to the kitchen and proceeded to open a dirty-white refrigerator. Both Dawn and Paul noticed this and stared at each other with a confused look on their faces and looked back at Sally who seemed to be depressed.

"What's with her?" Dawn whispered to Paul as they seated themselves at their chairs that seem to be very old along with the table.

Paul only shrugged his shoulders and continued to look away from her as he stared at Sally's cooking.

"So how long have you both been together? "Alicia broke the silence as she put her hands on the table and leaned forward while looking at the two with a big smile on her face.

"Uh… what?" Dawn was shocked to hear that question from Alicia as both Paul and she blushed deeply as they stared at each other for only a second and quickly looked away.

"You know, boyfriend and girlfriend… Couple?" Alicia continued while making hand-motions, making them even blush redder than before.

"We're not a couple!" Paul and Dawn shouted in unison with their faces still blushing red, they looked at each other again and quickly turned to the other side while Alicia was still in her cheerful expression.

"But your faces tell everything!" She laughed hard while pointing at the faces of Dawn and Paul.

"Now, now, Alicia. You shouldn't ask too many questions to our guests…" Sally called her daughter as she went towards the dining table while holding two plates in her hands.

Sally placed their plates in front of the two as it gave off a pleasant aroma that could make any hungry person drool instantly.

"Here you go," Sally said with a cheerful smile, "Oh I forgot, " She went back and opened a drawer and took two pairs of spoon and fork and gave it to them.

"Now dig in, you kids." She bowed down and went back to the kitchen counters and began cleaning it.

Dawn looked at her plate filled with rice and curry, as the pleasant aroma stimulated her appetite and her hands quickly grabbed hold of her spoon and fork as she began to eat her plate.

"Wow, this curry is good!" Dawn said while enjoying every bite she had.

"Why, thank you. I'm glad you liked it." Sally also blushed in embarrassment by the praise that was given to her cooking.

Paul, however, said nothing and ate like a gentleman. He grabbed his spoon and fork elegantly, as he scooped small portions of his food with his fork slowly, and chewed it slowly and wiped his mouth after every few bites.

'Wow, I've never thought he eats like that…' Dawn thought to herself as she stared at Paul while he isn't looking at her as she continued to consume the curry rice.

A few minutes passed as the two finally finished their plate of curry rice and were pretty much satisfied.

"Wow, thanks for the delicious meal." Dawn said as she wiped her mouth clean with her handkerchief as Paul pushed away his plate.

Dawn noticed his plate was much cleaner than hers, there's not even a single grain of rice left on his plate.

"Rrrrriiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnngggggggggg!"

Suddenly they heard a mechanical sound, probably from a telephone.

"Uhh, I'll get it, Alicia, you go wash the plates, okay?" Sally quickly dashed outside the kitchen, leaving the three stare at each other with a confused expression on their faces.

"What's up with her?" Dawn asked as she looked at Alicia.

"Dunno, she always gets worked up everytime our phone rings." She sighed as she collected their plates and proceeded to the kitchen sink to wash them.

"Do you have a bathroom here?" Paul suddenly spoke, which surprised the two of them as he said nothing before their meals were served.

"Uhh, its just outside in the kitchen, and it's the third door to your left."

"Thanks." Paul stood and quickly left the kitchen, leaving Dawn and Alicia still kinda surprised.

"So Dawn, are you a pokemon trainer?" Alicia asked her, finally a question where Dawn can answer comfortably.

"Yeah."

"Wow! That's so cool! I wanna become a trainer just like you!"

"Just wait a little longer until you're ten okay, then you can become a pokemon trainer just like me."

"So, can I see that pokemon you had back in the square?"

"Oh, you mean Piplup? Sure, why not?"

Dawn showed Alicia her blue penguin pokemon as she let it out of its pokeball. As Alicia's eyes were amazed, a new inspiration and friendship dwelled in her heart between her, Dawn, and pokemon.

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"I know it's been a month since past the due date you've given us." A female voice said.

"Please, just give us a bit more time."

"Four days? Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you so much."

A clicking sound was heard and soon everything became silent, and then crying sounds appeared.

"How can I get that much money on just four days?" That same voice again, but now she appeared to be crying and sad.

"Joe has been working as hard as he could just to save every penny we can, and there's no way we cannot pay the rent anymore…"

"There's a small piece of land in sale on the other side, but our savings aren't even close enough to buy it with only four days remaining..."

The female voice continued to weep. As Paul, although he didn't like to eavesdrop, peeked inside to see Sally, Alicia's mother kneeling down and covered her face with her hands and continued to cry.

Sally stopped crying afterwards, as soon as she stood up, Paul immediately went his way towards the kitchen.

As Paul got closer and closer, he could hear the conversation between Dawn and Alicia. But most of them were giggles and girly talks, something that isn't even worth his time hearing it.

He stood by the entrance as Alicia quickly noticed him followed by Dawn.

"I need to get going now, and thanks for the meal." Paul said flatly as he headed straight towards the door.

"Uh, I need to get going too, thank you for your generous hospitality, Alicia." Dawn quickly recalled Piplup and dashed outside the kitchen and followed Paul.

"No problem, come back soon okay?" Alicia followed through the entrance of their house and waved her hands to the air.

"I'll just have to wait for another year and then I can finally become a pokemon trainer!" Alicia mumbled to herself as she clenched her fists up high.

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"It has been a long day is it?"

"Yeah. First at the harbor, our battle together, Paul came and we battled, then Team Rocket came and tried to steal our pokemon again…"

"And then the contest we saw on TV, the cool prizes, and Team Rocket showed up again and ended up blasting off again by them…"

Ash and May shared a laugh as they looked at Pikachu, Glaceon, and Buneary who felt proud by their achievement.

"It sure is getting pretty dark…"

May stared at the sun setting down as the light was getting dimmer by the minute.

The gang walked back to the contest building where Cid must have been waiting for a very long time just for them.

They soon find themselves back outside the building entrance again, but now with the prizes at their hands safe and sound.

"Hey Cid! We got the prizes back!" Ash shouted.

After a few seconds, they could hear loud footsteps coming from the inside as a big round figure soon came into view.

"YOU GOT THE PRIZES BACK?" A fat guy with a big moustache and wearing a blue tuxedo came rushing in to the two.

"OH THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!" Cid hugged Ash and May tightly.

"Can't…breathe….Mom…."

"Oh sorry about that, " Cid released the hug then quickly swiped the prizes from them and began inspecting them thoroughly.

"And there's not even a single rip or fold, " Cid continued to inspect the prizes until he noticed something on the cash prize.

"Why is this part wet?" He touched the part of the cash prize that seems to be wet as Glaceon quickly looked the other way while blushing in embarrassment.

"Well, never mind about this, it will dry up eventually. Now how can I repay you kids?"

Ash and May thought for a moment, until a realization struck Ash's mind.

"I completely forgot to register for the competition!!!" He screamed as May also remembered what they were doing here in the first place.

"Oh so you kids want to register for our lovely town's trainer's competition right?"

The two only nodded in unison as Cid smiled at them.

"Don't worry about that, " Cid patted their shoulders and then showed to them a stack of papers out of nowhere.

"What's this?" May took the stack from his hands as she and Ash looked at them.

"Those are the forms that are needed to register for the competition, " Cid pinpointed the "Registration Form" with his finger as both of them nodded together.

"You can bring those to me tomorrow morning with complete information, okay? And you can invite your friends to join too if you want, that's why I gave you a bundle."

"Wow, really, thanks Cid."

"Aww, its nothing really, but be sure to give me those forms by tomorrow morning, since I am a very busy man you see and preparing the competition takes some work."

"Will do Cid, see you tomorrow then." Ash said as they bid goodbye to Cid.

The gang went their way back to the Pokemon Center to retire for the night, by tomorrow, they planned to get some training.

Both Ash and May watched Pikachu, Glaceon, and Buneary who were ahead of them. They could giggle and laugh a bit at Pikachu's situation.

Glaceon got closer and closer to Pikachu and leaned her head against his.

Buneary immediately noticed this and quickly went beside Pikachu and hugged his arm while leaning her head against his.

Glaceon and Buneary only stared at each other as they proceeded to get closer in full body contact while Pikachu was literally squeezed sandwich-style.

After a few minutes of walking, the gang could already see the Pokemon center, as they got closer to the entrance, Ash and May saw two figures coming their way, Ash quickly recognized them as the one had lavender hair while the other one had long blue hair.

"Hey Paul, Dawn!" Ash called out to them as they ran towards the two as May and the others followed behind.

"Hey Ash, May!" Dawn quickly dashed towards the two, leaving Paul, who was not even happy to see them, behind.

Buneary quickly leaped towards Dawn as she embraced her lovingly.

"How are you doing Buneary?" Dawn softly asked as she continued hugging her as Buneary returned the affection with her own.

"Hey May, what's that you're holding?" Dawn noticed May holding a stack of papers with her.

"Oh, these are registration forms for the upcoming competition in this town." May replied as she gave her one as she began to read every detail and information.

"Wow, a cash prize of $5000 and a ticket for six for free admission to the Sevii Islands?!" Dawn quickly became overjoyed as her eyes caught sight of the prizes for the victor of this competition.

Ash went towards Paul as May and Dawn continued their conversation about the competition.

"So, are you going to enter the competition as well, Paul?" Ash asked him as he gave a paper, Paul took it, and read it.

After a short while, he said nothing to him and proceeded inside the Pokemon Center while still holding the registration form, leaving Ash confused.

Ash shook his head and sighed and went back to the two.

"So why are you holding a stack of these anyway?" Dawn asked.

"It's a long story really… Come on, let's go inside first, it's getting really chilly in here." May suggested.

"Yeah, you could also tell us what you and Paul were doing as well." Ash added as he led them to the entrance.

"You guys won't believe me when I'll told you what Paul did."

"Try us."

The girls giggled as they headed inside the center. As Ash opened the door, they were surprised to see Paul and someone sitting on the floor.

"Watch where you're going, you idiot!" Paul shouted as he got up to his feet and wiped his butt.

"Sorry about that…" The person replied slowly as he slowly got up to his feet.

Dawn's eyes widened as she quickly recognized the person as she quickly ran towards him.

The person also noticed Dawn and immediately recognized her as well and called her as he also ran towards her.

"Hey Dawn!"

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A new character has now appeared in this story that Dawn knew very well.

Guess who it is… :D