Amv: YAY! I'm finally posting this! My friend Gin will be happy!

Drew: you have a friend named "Gin?"

Amv: That's her nickname. Anyway, this should be fun, once the word gets out that I'm still alive. Go Contestshipping!

May: Yippee. Anyway, Amv4eva doesn't own Pokemon.

Chapter One

The classroom buzzed over with idle chatter as students took their books and binders out of their desks; the class was at last drawing to a close. The charcoal-colored blackboard was covered in neat, chalky letters describing the proper uses of apostrophes. However, through the light-hearted bustle, a girl with long brunette hair snapped at her friend irritably.

"Stop it, Bethany!" She said, glaring at the girl who had previously been tapping her mechanical pencil impatiently onto the desk. Bethany's shoulder-length brown-blonde hair was tied into two tight braids, the right one falling over her shoulder as she turned to reply, "Come on, May, English is over, who cares what we do?"

"It's giving me a headache, and I hate Mondays!" May complained, putting a hand on her forehead and covering her sapphire blue eyes.

"Everyone hates Mondays," Another girl, Misty, put in. She pointed her pencil at May as if condemning her. "You're just PO'd at hearing that Drew beat you in the English quiz."

"By half a point, Goddess forbid," A fourth girl, Dawn, added, replacing her lip gloss back in her purse.

May shot each girl death glares. "Shut up. I hate him! He's beaten me in nearly every Reading and English test!"

"And you beat him at nearly Math and Geography test," Bethany said, ticking the subjects off her fingers conversationally, "You're both pretty much even in Science, though," she added thoughtfully.

"As you two have been since… dinosaurs?" Misty wondered, "Or the Spanish Inquisition?"

"And I repeat: shut up!" May said as the piercing scream that doubled as the bell echoed through the building. The four girls grabbed their books and went to the door, and out into the loud, crowded hallway. May stopped outside her locker and spun the dial. Below and two lockers to the right, Bethany was ranting angrily.

"Why? Why do they make these lockers so darn SMALL? I can hardly fir my back pack, let alone all the Math and English and Science and Geography and Spanish junk they make us carry around!"

"Impressive," said a new voice, "Having a good Monday, I see."

The girls turned to see lanky, blond Jack Smith, with his hair falling into his face and holding a pile of books. He was accompanied by black-haired Ash Ketchum and purple-haired Paul Handsman. They were also laden with books and binders.

Bethany smiled. Jack, after all, was her best guy friend. "Yeah." She glanced at May with a hinting look to him. "Kind of a bad day all around."

"Hi, Paul," Dawn said, smiling cutely. He made a noncommental grunt and turned away.

"What's up, May?" Misty asked as she shut her locker. May's forehead was creased angrily as she feverishly probed her locker.

"Oh, come on, where is it? Where, where, where?" She burst out angrily.

"Where's what?" Bethany asked.

"My textbook! What else?"

"Hey," Jack cut in, "Let's take a breath here. What textbook was it?"

May frowned at Jack's usual, easy-going disposition. "My—Science—Textbook!" she hissed through her teeth.

A flicker of surprise crossed Ash's usually blank face. "Is that the one with a red rose on the book cover?"

May withdrew her head from her locker. (AN- yep, she had her head in the locker the whole time!) "Yeah, that's it. Have you seen it?"

"Um… Drew, did. Actually. He found it yesterday after class."

May frowned. And Drew returned to the picture once again. He may have been best friends with Jack, Ash, and Paul, and consequentially was forced to hang out with the girls sometimes, he was the bane of May's very existence. Cocky and arrogant, the only sophomore who could rival his intelligence was May herself. The two students had been academic rivals as far back as anyone in their class could remember. Drew excelled in Reading and /English classes, while May struck back with Math and Geography. Both students were fighting tooth and nail to be the best in Science, which would determine once and for all who was the 'champion' and would stop annoying everyone else.

As May slammed her door shut so hard people on the other end of the hall stopped and looked around, Misty, who had noticed May flushing crimson in her fury, said, "Let's get to class."

There was a murmur of agreement, and the seven quickly walked down the hallway to the classroom, which was the very last door on the left. The students were talking loudly with one another as May wove her way down the rows of desks to her own at the front of the room. She tucked her books under her desk and took her homework out of her binder before stowing that away as well. The white, lined notebook paper was full of her round, even handwriting. Since May had thought she had forgotten her textbook at school, she had phoned Bethany for the questions and answered them from memory.

Since a lovely SOMEBODY couldn't have the decency to give it back until school was over, May thought scathingly, turning in her seat to look at the person she hated the most, sitting across the aisle from her, checking his homework: Drew Maxwell.

"Maxwell!" she hissed. The boy glanced at her, a little smirk creasing his face. \

"Hello, Maple. It's good to see you got the homework done without your textbook."

"Yeah. About that." May held out her hand, palm facing up. "Give it back."

"Hm? Oh, you mean this one?" Drew replied, a mischievous glimmer lighting up his emerald eyes. He reached under his desk and pulled out a thick textbook with a fabric book cover. A crimson rose stood out on a red background.

"Yes, that one." She reached over to get it, but Drew bent his elbow so that the book hovered just above his shoulder and out of May's reach.

"Come on, after all the trouble I went to to ensure it got back to its owner safely? Don't I get a thank-you?" Drew asked in mock outrage.

"Do I look in the mood for this?"

"Oh, and there's a twenty dollar holding cost."

"Wha-? You have a job!"

"So?"

"If you don't give me that book in five seconds, I swear I'll—"

"Maple! Maxwell!" The teacher said from his desk. "I can hear your dulcet tones from over here. I trust you are engaging in enriched, mature, scientific conversation?"

"But of course," Drew said virtuously. "We were discussing the homework."

Under the desk he passed May her textbook, at last. May snatched it from his grasp and grimaced, thinking; great, now I have to burn the book cover.

Mr. Peters gave a low chuckle, and then stood up in front of the room, his teacher's version of their textbook crooked in his arm. "Okay, we've got a lot to do today, so let's go over the homework quickly. Naruto, the answer to number one is…?"

"Uh… 'B: the process of water moving through cell membranes is called osmosis.'" The yellow-haired boy read off his paper.

"Yes." Mr. Peters nodded. "Now, Sohma, number two?"

"Which one?" A purple-haired boy asked, brushing his side bangs out of his face.

"Er… the one with the odd-colored hair," Mr. Peters replied, slightly off-put.

"Again, which one?" asked a boy with white hair that turned black at the roots.

Mr. Peters rolled his eyes. "You know what? Why don't all three of you answer?"

"'A: respiration,'" Yuki, Haru, and Kyo said together.

"Well, that's over with," the teacher muttered, "Number three…"

Five minutes later, their easy assignment was checked over and passed to the front of the room to be graded. Mr. Peters took a slip of his paper from his desk; May noticed several corrections and cross-outs made in red pen had bled through the back of the paper, but it was difficult, as usual, to read his handwriting. However, it was clear that he had spent a lot of time on whatever it was.

Standing at the front of his desk, the teacher said, "Well, it's April, and you all know what that means."

"Flowers come next month?" Ash said stupidly.

Everyone stared.

"Well, you all know the rhyme! 'April showers bring May—"

"Yes, we all know the rhyme," Mr. Peters interrupted. "That's not it. As you may have forgotten, April is the month of the school-wide science fair."

A collective groan rose from the class.

"Deal with it," Mr. Peters said unsympathetically. "I personally would rather continue our study of the body systems, but science fair participation points are mandatory for college.

"Now, I've already put you into groups of two and decided on your general topics. Rest assured I took into consideration people you would work well with and topics that would interest you. Now, without further ado, the groups."

May sat up even straighter in her seat and held her breath. Maybe she would be in a group with Misty or Bethany; even talkative Dawn would be cool…
"Sora and Kairi will be doing the types of light…"

Sora and Kairi exchanged glances.

"…Kyo and Tohru will be doing states of matter…"

Tohru smiled good naturedly at Kyo, not noticing the jealous glares a few girls were shooting her.

"Hiyono and Ayumu will be doing genetics and DNA…"

Hiyono immediately pulled out her little pocketbook to see if she had any blackmail on any geneticists, and Ayumu shivered. (AN- watch the anime or read the manga and it'll seem a lot funnier.)

"…Dawn and Paul will be studying greenhouses gases…"

Dawn exploded into hysterical giggles while Paul's face drained of color.

"…Ash and Misty will be doing water ecosystems…"

Ash smiled shyly at Misty, who grinned back.

"…And May and Drew will be doing chemistry."

May's elbow slid off the desk; Drew dropped his pencil.

"WHAT?!" They cried out in horror.

"If anyone has any problems with their subject or their partner, see me when the others go to the library," Mr. Peters continued blandly as if May and Drew had not interrupted. "Everyone, line up."

May remained in her seat as the others went to the door and bustled into the hallway. Wave after wave of shock crashed over her; she couldn't believe that she was going to be forced to work with him for two weeks.

Mr. Peters returned to the room after watching the other students go down the hall. He did not look surprised to see May and Drew still sitting in their seats. The two sophomores stood up and walked to his place at the door.

"Somehow, I'm not surprised to see you two," He sighed. "So, what's upsetting you?"

"Two things," Drew said before May could speak. "First, chemistry is an extremely broad topic. There's no way we could possibly do a good project on everything chemistry on a single poster board—"

"I think he meant that we could do any brand of chemistry we wanted, as long as it was related to the assigned topic," May told him, shooting him an icy glare. He very easily could have shelved his pride for the three seconds it would have taken him to ask her that. Not that she cared.

"That's what I thought, I just figured I should ask," Drew retorted sharply.

Mr. Peters sighed again and interrupted the squabble. "Miss Maple is correct; you can do any brand of your subject. Now, the second issue?"

"Well…" May struggled to find the right words. "…Drew and I, sir, well, we don't exactly get along very well."

"As you two have demonstrated numerous times in the past twenty minutes," Mr. Peters said with a straight face. "Well, as I said, I took a lot of consideration into picking the groups, though it may not appear so. You see, the winner of the school-wide science fair will be sent on to the city-wide fair. All of the other teachers have agreed… if you two compete together, you have a very good chance of going to the city competition. Of course, everyone not living beneath a rock has heard the stories of you two being less than friendly to each other, but as a science teacher, I look at it a little… differently…than others do." He finished with a small laugh.

Drew glanced between himself and May and, despite himself, asked, "How do you look at it?"

Another small laugh. "Ah, forget I said anything. You'll figure it out sometime soon."

"Yeah, okay," May said skeptically. She took her books more securely into her arms and continued, "I'm going to the library. Thanks, Mr. Peters." She set off without looking back.

Drew rolled his eyes. In a voice tinged with sarcasm he said, "Thanks, Mr. Peters," and left as well. He could hear Mr. Peters chuckling enigmatically to himself behind him.

"Hold up, Maple!" Drew called after her.

May ignored him, continuing down the stairs and down another corridor. Drew's legs were longer than hers, however, and he caught up to her in about a minute.

"Thanks for waiting," Drew snapped as he fell into step with her.

"Anytime," May said coolly. "So, what type of chemistry do we want to do?"

"The kind that can make it seem like an accident if you die using the chemicals?" Drew suggested scathingly.

"I was thinking of the kind that has chemicals that can burn your hair off if it's dumped over your head," May shot back.

Drew's eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't."

"I assure you I would," May hissed as they entered the library. Some students were sitting at round tables, looking through books and taking notes. Others were walking amongst the tall bookshelves, scanning titles for anything relating to their subject. Still more were surrounding the library helpers, asking for direction to a section that had more books for them.

May threw her books onto an empty table and went off to an unoccupied area of the library, searching for titles that included "chemistry." Drew joined her in the search and stood on the other side of the aisle.

After a few minutes Drew said, "Yo, Maple, I hit the jackpot."

"Yeah, that sounded intelligent and mature," May muttered as she turned around to face the green-haired boy.

As she slowly walked to his side, her hands clasped studiously behind her back, May examined the titles. True, they were about chemistry, but they were all at least as thick as her copy of the complete Sherlock Holmes mysteries on her bookshelf at home. (A/N- I do have a copy of that book, in fact. It weighs about five pounds, no joke.) She was guessing that they would not be any less confusing to read.

Drew seemed to be sharing her thoughts. He pulled a random book off the shelf, and, balancing it on his knee, let it fall open. After trying to read thirty seconds worth of the small print, he closed the book. "Well, certainly not looking at that again. I don't think any of the seniors could have made head or tail of that."

May rolled her eyes. "Don't just pull a random book off the shelf without knowing what you're looking for."

"Then tell me what you want to work on!" Drew said heatedly, crossing his arms. "We've got to come up with something in the next…" he checked his watch. "…five minutes."

She groaned. "Excellent, really excellent."

"Isn't it?" Drew retorted, banging his head onto the books. He winced slightly and reached up to his temple. "Ow…"

"Smooth move, hitting yourself in one of the most sensitive parts of the body," May said unsympathetically. Then she noticed the book he had hit his head on. "Hey, I got it!"

"What?" Drew asked grumpily as he turned to the book May was reaching for. On its blue cover were silver words reading Ten Scientific Phenomena that Don't Seem All That Scientific.

"I saw this and I thought, why not try and study that thing that happens with Diet Coke and Mentos? I heard that some guy ate those and his stomach blew up, we could experiment to see if that's possible!" May told him excitedly.

Drew stared at her. "Are you serious?"

"Uh…yeah," May answered, blanching slightly. "You don't like it?"

"Actually…I do. That's seriously cool!" A grin slowly began to break out across his face. "We can use a balloon or something for the stomach… but we'll need to do something about the hydrochloric acid in the stomach, that's definitely a factor… it'll also give us a chance to bring soda and candy to school," Drew added as an afterthought. He turned to her, still smiling. "Not a bad idea."

May laughed lightly. "Thanks."

The bell suddenly rang, and students grabbed their books and sprinted out of the library as if it were on fire. Shaking her head, May went to their table and grabbed her books. She and Drew glanced at each other; a distinct feeling of awkwardness suddenly washed over them.

"Well." Drew said. "Um. I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

Yeah," May nodded once, and they left the library, heading their separate ways to their lockers.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"Tell us everything, you're not getting' out of nut'in'!" Dawn told May as soon as she sat down at the circular lunch table she shared with Misty, Bethany, and Dawn.

May frowned, looking up from her plate of cafeteria gruel. "Okay, Dawn, A) proper grammar, and B) about what?"

"About working with DREW, your RIVAL, on a CHEMISTRY project!" Dawn cried.

"We're studying Diet Coke and Mentos," May answered, knowing full well this was not what Dawn had meant.

"Oh, so that's what you two were laughing about," Misty said with a smirk.

"We're trying to see if we can blow up a balloon with it," May explained quickly. She was suddenly very eager to get the conversation off of her. "What are you guys doing?"

"I dunno, really. Paul never talks around me." Dawn moped slightly. She had been looking forward to getting to know the socially awkward Paul Handsman.

"Ash and I—well, knowing him, it'll probably be mostly me—are studying how oil spills and similar waste products affect coral reefs and other shallow-water ecosystems." Misty explained. "And I don't really know what I just said."

"Um, Jack and I are doing how different types and tempos of music affect the human psyche." Bethany said, "It sounds like fun."

May nodded and acted as interested as she could pass for being. She was very glad for the successful change in subject, but she hadn't a clue why.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"So…" Jack said with a slightly twisted grin to Drew, "You and May."

"You say that like I'm dating her," Drew replied coolly.

"Well, you know… chemistry," Jack stressed the last word to embellish his point. "You never know, something may come up."

"Somehow I doubt it. Anyone up for a change in subject?" Drew tacked on hopefully.

"No," Paul said, "because talking about your thing with May always makes me feel better about my thing with Dawn. At least you can string two words together when she's within twenty feet of you."

"Little steps, Paul," Ash said wisely. "Take baby steps 'til you're full grown."

"…I'm not going to comment on you quoting Fergie lyrics," Jack told him.

"Yeah," Drew added. "That was a bit weird." He was about to take a bite of his, apple, but something suddenly sunk in. He set it down and turned to Paul. "Wait, what do you mean, my 'thing' with May?"

"Oh, Drew," Jack sighed in an almost paternal way. "Isn't it obvious? You tease her twenty-four-seven."

"I know that, thanks."

"Well, why?" Paul asked him, spreading his hands slightly at shoulder height.

Drew rolled his eyes. "Well, for one, I…I…" a small frown came onto his face. "I mean, I… And she… Of course…I mean…"

The other boys watched him with little smirks growing on their faces.

"I… don't know," he said softly. Drew picked up his apple again, turning it in his hands, but he no longer felt hungry.

Ash laughed. "Case and point."

"Okay, what case and what point?!" Drew asked vehemently. "Just 'cuz I tease her doesn't mean there's a 'thing' with her! There is nothing between me and May Maple but an icy cold rivalry that's been maintained since we met!"

He finished his little rant, glaring at each of his friends in turn. Why are they looking at me like I'm some stupid, clueless little boy? He wondered to himself in response to their continued smirks.

Drew rested his chin in his palm and looked morosely around the cafeteria. His eyes lingered on May for a moment, taking in her appearance. Short sleeved, slim-fitting black Aeropostale t-shirt that was wrinkled slightly; tan, baggy, long cargo pants.

And then, for the merest fraction of a second, May's dark blue eyes flicked over Bethany's shoulder and peered straight into his.

The tiniest lurch in his stomach, but one enough to make Drew look away quickly, made him tell himself again though a tinge of uneasiness backed it, There isn't a 'thing' with her, Drew. Now eat the stupid apple.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Amv: Well, THAT only took four months to write.

May: When you were actually writing…

Amv: Eh. Well, I'll work harder on updating.

Drew: Sure you will.

Amv: You'll all see! Please read and review!... Wow, I haven't written that in the longest time…