~Ash's POV~

I felt my hair blow back as everyone shouted at me. All of them yelling together was not pleasant, I could feel my ears ringing.

"WHAT DID I JUST HEAR?!" Misty shouted.

"N-nothing!" I panicked. "I-I don't like her..."

"THEN HOW TO YOU EXPLAIN WHAT GARY SAID, HUH?!"

Shivers went down my spine. "Uh, w-well he was, um..."

You don't know much I hated Gary right now. He revealed who I liked in front of everyone. I don't know how he did it, but he somehow did. It wasn't that hard to keep a simple secret, but even then he still ended up revealing it.

"Now calm down..." May said as she took Misty by the arm.

"How can I not?!" Misty let herself go out of May's grip. "A pervert has a crush on Serena! I cannot let this be!"

Drew sweat dropped. "It has been a few months since he moved here, and you're still on this pervert thing?"

"Shut up, Drew!" Misty shouted. "This is none of your business!"

He put his hands up. "Okay, okay. Gosh."

Gary could be seen continuing to cover his mouth with his hand, still shocked at what he said earlier.

"Ash! Get over here and answer my question now!" Misty growled.

"Please don't kill me!" I cried.

"Oh, I will!" She stomped over towards where I was standing.

Iris pulled Misty back, stopping her from whatever she was planning on doing. And boy was I glad. Who knew what would've happened to me if she got here.

"Misty, please stop. You're not going to get anywhere with all this yelling. Just let Ash explain."

As much as Misty wanted to murder me, she decided to calm down and listen to Iris. She sighed, and sat back down in her spot. She crossed her arms and looked away from everyone, still pissed at what just happened.

"Now that she has finally cooled down..." Iris said and looked over at me. "Care to tell us what's happening, Ash?"

"Do you really like Serena in that way?" May asked.

"W-what are you guys talking about? I-I don't like her..." I looked down, blushing uncontrollably.

Miette cleared her throat. "Ahem. What was that, Ash? I believe that was a lie."

"Erg..." I wiped the sweat off the palms of my hands onto my jeans, due to the amount of nervousness I was feeling.

If only Gary kept his mouth shut, this wouldn't be happening. Now I had to go through the struggle of telling everyone how I really felt, even though I didn't want to.

I looked over at Clemont, who just shrugged. He then motioned over to everybody, telling me to just go with it, and that it was about time they should know.

"Alright, fine." I said, avoiding eye contact with everyone. "I-I like Serena." I mumbled in a soft voice, blushing even harder than before.

Miette grinned to herself. "Thought so."

"Oh my arceus, you really do!" Dawn squealed. "That's so cute!"

"You think it's cute...?" Misty said with a disgusted look.

She nodded. "Of course! I mean, just picturing them, they would be so adorable together!"

"Yeah, I think so too!" May said.

"Hmm... So Ash likes Serena?" Barry said. "Shame, and I was thinking of going for her."

"Not in a million years!" I shouted, accidentally letting my thoughts out through my mouth.

"Awwww...." Gary teased. "You are protecting your girl, how sweet." He smirked.

Gary needed to shut up. He was the one who started all this chaos, and now he was acting like nothing happened at all. I'll tease him about Misty later today to get him back.

"Okay, let's not go that far." I rolled my eyes.

"Awh, he's blushing!" Dawn giggled.

I looked away, trying my best to hide my face. "No I'm not."

"Yes you are." Miette smirked.

"See, Misty. Everybody here is fine with Ash liking Serena. Why can't you just accept the fact that he does?" Kenny said.

"Cause he's a pervert!" She replied.

I sweat dropped. I knew that was coming. Every single day, she had to call me a perv at least once. From what I remember, there hasn't been a day where she hasn't called me one.

"Okay, let's be real here." Iris said. "He really isn't a pervert, and you know that, Misty."

"Alright, alright." Misty sighed. "Fine, I will allow you to date Serena."

I scratched my cheek. "I didn't say I was going to date her..."

"You will, I know it." Miette winked.

"But hear this. I will still be keeping an eye on you. If you dare hurt her, you will be sorry." Misty said, scaring me half to death once again.

"Okay, first of all, you are acting like I am about to ask her out, which I'm not. Second, why would I hurt Serena in the first place?"

"I wouldn't talk like that towards her if I were you." Drew said, pointing towards Misty.

She didn't look to happy that I talked back to her. I swear, this girl hated me with a passion. Out of all the people in this room, I knew she hated me the most. It surprised me, because the one people usually hated was Gary. But not this time.

"Guys, can you please keep quiet about this?" I said.

"Yeah, no prob." May replied. "Mouths shut."

"But still though! You and Serena look so cute together!!! Just hurry up and date already!" Dawn squealed for the second time.

"I look cute with... who...?" Serena approached us from behind, just getting back from her shower.

I bit my tongue as I heard her voice. No, no, no, no. A sat in my spot, sweating like crazy. Did she hear the entire conversation? Oh please arceus, no.

"Oh, hi, Serena!" May waved. "How was your shower?" She said, trying to change the subject.

"I-it was okay, I guess." She replied. "What were you guys just talking about?"

My face began to heat up. These people better not give it away. They need to keep their mouths shut, especially Gary.

"Nothing! We were not talking about you, at all!" Barry said.

I face palmed. He made it so obvious we were talking about her.

"B-but I heard my name.... Something about me dating someone?"

I suddenly got up from my seat, everyone looking at me in the process. "Oh, would you look at that!" I pointed to my wrist. "It's almost 10, we should go head to Brock and see what he has in store for us today!" I then sped past everybody, leaving the room.

"What?" Serena said as she watched me go. "You're not even wearing a watch...?"

I stopped walking and froze in my spot. I didn't think this through and just decided to use the time as an excuse when I don't even own a watch. What the hell is wrong with me.

"Oh, I just assumed it was 10, haha..." I nervously chuckled.

"Way to go...." Paul sighed to himself.

Bonnie skipped over to Serena and knelt down in front of her. "Can you please take care of A-"

Clemont quickly used his aipom arm to stop Bonnie before she could say anything. He brought her back and placed her in front of him. "For the hundredth  time, stop doing that!"

"No, let me go!" She wiggled. "I'm only trying to help Ash!"

"Shhh! Be quiet!" Clemont said.

Serena watched the siblings in confusion. She had no idea what was going on right now. I wouldn't blame her, because everyone was acting all weird, after all.

"Well then," Drew walked over to the doors. "Shall we go?"

"Yeah..." Serena nodded, still feeling lost as to what was happening.

Brock was outside, sitting on one of the benches. He was going through the schedule, going over what we are supposed to do today. I was glad we were finally outside, I needed to clear my mind from all that happened.

"Ah, there you guys are." Brock said, after hearing us coming towards him.

"Morning!" Barry waved.

"So how are your cottages?"

"They're amazing, thank you." Dawn smiled.

"That's good."

Gary looked over Brock's shoulder, wanting to know what we had in store for us today. "So, what's the plan?"

"Well, today you guys will be going to a city or town of your choice. You can only choose one, so choose wisely."

"Hmm... I say we go to Pallet Town!" Gary said.

"Yeah, good idea!" I exclaimed. "Is everyone okay with that?"

The entire gang agreed. "Sure. It would be cool to see your hometown." Kenny said.

"Awesome!" I jumped.

"But that's not until after lunch," Brock said, looking at the time. "So you guys have a few more hours to yourselves. Just meet back here at about 2pm, then we'll leave."

"Alright then. I suppose we'll just hang in our cottages til then." Drew said. "See ya later, Brock."

We followed Drew back to the cottage. There wasn't much to do, since we didn't bring any of our game consoles. The only option we pretty much had was to just to watch TV or play with some of the board games that we found in the basement.

"So, you wanna play snakes and ladders?" Barry said, holding up to board game.

"Not really. I don't feel like playing any board game, to be honest." Misty said, flipping through the TV channels.

Kenny pouted. "You're no fun. Then what do you want to do?"

"I don't know."

Kenny sighed and flopped onto the couch. "You guys are boring."

Clemont could be seen adjusting his glasses. He had an object behind him, which seemed to be one of his inventions. I already knew what was coming.

"The future is now... thanks to science." Clemont said with no enthusiasm, whatsoever.

"Big brother, say it with more passion!" Bonnie said.

"I don't want to!" Clemont slouched. "I don't like the idea of this!"

"Well I do! Now c'mon, show them what you made!"

"Uh, what's going on?" I asked.

Clemont stepped away from the device behind him, revealing it to everyone. "I told Bonnie she could pick what my next invention could be, and she made me make this." He pointed to it.

"W-what is it?" Misty asked.

"It's the Matchmaker 2000!" Bonnie said. "I think it would be fun to try it out!"

Dawn stared at the device. "Matchmaker 2000...?"

The name of this device made me cringe. It already revealed what the device did, and I did not like the idea of it. If that device actually worked properly and revealed to Serena that I liked her... Oh no. I could feel my face heating up just by thinking of it.

"We are going to find everyone's perfect matches!" Bonnie said, giving us an innocent smile.

"Oh no..." Clemont groaned.

Sometimes I wondered what goes around in Bonnie's mind. All she did was pair us up with each other. She was like Miette, but worse. And now she even made her brother make this device. She's such a weird girl.

"Okay, who's going first?" Bonnie looked around the room. "How about you, big brother?"

"N-no!" He panicked. "I-I don't want to do this!"

"Too late!" Bonnie pressed the button. On the screen of the device, it began scanning all the girls, looking for the perfect match for Clemont.

The girls didn't look too happy about the device either, but none of them complained about it. But then there was Clemont, who was already beat red and shaking as he awaited the results.

And it better not be Serena.

Before the device could tell us the results, it began to emit smoke, covering up the entire living room, before exploding.

Everybody was slightly thrown back. I think I even saw Gary fall off the couch. That would have been hilarious to see, but it was quite hard to see in all this smoke.

"As expected." Drew coughed as he wiped the black soot off himself.

"Big brother, your invention was no good at all!" Bonnie cried.

"Phew..." Clemont sighed of relief. For once, he was glad his invention was a bust.

I was kind of glad that the invention exploded as well, because that meant I would've been tested as well. I didn't want that device telling Serena that I liked her.

We spent the next few hours doing whatever. Misty agreed to play board games with us eventually, which was probably the only thing we did the entire time. If only we brought video games, things would've been a lot more entertaining.

It was now almost 2pm, which was the time we were supposed to meet Brock. We got ready, and headed out of the cottage.

"This is gonna be awesome! We need to visit Professor Oak while we're there!" I said.

"Yeah!" Gary agreed. "And my house too! Never been there in forever!"

As we were making our way to Brock, we found him talking to another boy. The first thing that came to mind was a friend of his, or another guide. But once we got closer, I realized I was completely wrong.

I was caught off guard at the person in front of me. All the guy's stood there in shock, while Misty and the girl's faces angered. But Miette and Serena were the ones that were most affected at what they were seeing. They couldn't believe it.

Standing there was the last person I'd want to see, Calem.