"Calem? What are you doing here?"

Calem crosses his arms, and completely ignores my question.

"Why didn't you come to school?" He asks.

"I have my reasons." I reply.

"What did you do today?" He asks.

"Err, nothing, really." I reply.

"Then why did you come from Serena's house?" He slighty raises his voice.

"Wait, why are you asking me all these questions?" I give him a weird look.

"Answer me!" He almost yells.

"Uh, I just took care of her, she was sick. Chill." I reply feeling a little shocked.

"Listen to me." He takes a step closer to me.

"U-umm..." I take a step back.

"You both did not come to school today. So that made me wonder if something happened." He starts.

"Well, nothing big happened." I say.

He looks down at the ground for a while, then looks back up at me.

"Tell me something, Ash. Is there anything going on between you and Serena?"

"Huh? N-no!" I stutter.

Calem is acting weird. Why is he asking all this?

"Tell the truth." He says.

"Calem, I am telling the truth. Serena and I are just close friends. And no offense, but you do realize that this is none of your business, right?" I say, feeling annoyed.

"I don't care! Ash, ever since you moved to our school, Serena hasn't been talking to me very often like she used to anymore! You stole her away from me!" Calem shouts.

"What? What are you talking about? I did not steal her!" I reply.

"Yes, you did! I was going to ask her out! B-but then..." Calem pauses. "Until I saw you. You had to be there at that moment!"

Let me get this straight. Calem likes Serena, and now he is assuming something is going on between us. I don't know how to feel about that. My annoyed expression on my face turns soft.

"Y-you like Serena?" I quietly say.

"What does it look like?! Of course!" He rolls his eyes.

I don't know why, but that made me feel upset. I mean, crushes are normal and there's nothing wrong with it. But Calem liking Serena...I just can't help but get a little jealous.

"To be honest, you guys won't work out. Serena wouldn't want a fool like you. Why don't you go back to that dirty little place you call home, Pallet Town." He smirks.

"Pika!!!" Pikachu sparks his cheeks, trying to defend me.

"Shut up you rat!" Calem shouts at Pikachu.

"You shut up!" I yell. He has gone too far.

"Please, be quiet. Did you really come all the way here, just to yell at me?"

"Pretty much." He answers.

"Are you serious? You just wasted your time. Do you realize that? What you are thinking right now between Serena and I is wrong. Like I said before, this isn't any of your business anyways, so there was no point in coming here." I say, trying to stay calm.

Calem doesn't respond, he just looks away amd grits his teeth.

"Now, if you excuse me. I need to go home." I say and walk past him towards my door.

Before I can reach for the doornob, I feel Calem's hands on my shoulder. He turns me around and roughly pins me to the wall of my house.

"Do you want to know the true reason I came here for?!" Calem shouts.

"L-let go of me." I grunt.

I can feel Calem's heavyily breathing on my face.

"You don't deserve her!" He tightens his grip on my shoulders.

"I told you! I am not trying to date her or anything!" I yell.

"Okay, fine. If you are not trying to date her, good. Then do me a favor."

"W-what?" I gulp.

"Stay away from her." He lowers his voice.

"I can't just do that, Calem." I say.

"Just do as I say, or you will be sorry." He lets go of me and walks away, without saying another word.

I stand there in shock. I can't believe what Calem said. I thought he was a nice guy. Looks like I was wrong.

"Chu..." Pikachu looks at me in worry.

"I'm fine buddy. Don't worry." I pet his head.

I watch Calem as he reaches the gate exiting Vaniville Town. He opens the gate and leaves. I sigh and enter my house. Thank arceus my mom isn't home right now. She would've heard all the yelling and go all crazy.

I walk up to my room. I decide to take a shower, because it helps me get all the stress away. My mom comes home at about 6pm, and as usual, she makes my dinner. I then go to sleep really early, at about 9:30. I just want this day to be over, I am so tired. I feel Pikachu curl up beside me. I slowly close my eyes and call it a night.

* * * * *

The next morning...

"Wait!" I yell.

"Pika!"

I run as fast as I can, trying to get to the bus. I see the bus leave. I stop running and fall to the ground.

"Aw man..." I get up.

This morning, I woke up late. I forgot to set my alarm clock, and ended up waking up at 7:50. The bus comes every morning at 8, so I only had ten minutes to get ready. Unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough.

"Looks like we are walking to school." I sigh.

"Pi..." Pikachu sighs along with me.

I walk along the pathway to Lumiose City. About 40 minutes later, I finally arrive at school.

"Great. I'm late." I gulp as I see everyone at class already.

I walk to class and open the door. I enter the room. Everyone looks at me, including my teacher.

"Ash Ketchum! You are late!" My teacher says.

"Yeah, sorry. I missed the bus." I sweatdrop.

"Alright." She sighs. "Because this is your first time late, I will let this pass."

"Thanks miss." I reply.

I walk to my seat. I suddenly stop. I see Calem. I totally forgot I sit beside him in science class. Well that's just great. This is going to be awkward. I sit in my seat, trying to avoid eye contact with him.

"Today I am assigning a project." My teacher says.

"It will be partner work, so please pick someone you can work well with. Once you pick your partner, I want you to come to me, and I will tell you what you guys are doing."

Once she finishes, I see everyone get up and walk over to their desired partner. I don't even have to think, I already know who I want. I quickly get up and walk over to her, before anyone else does.

"Serena." I say.

"Hey, Ash." She looks at me.

"Do you want to be my partner?" I ask.

"Of course." She smiles.

As she smiles, I feel my cheeks turn pink. I notice it, and try to shake it off. There is seriously something wrong with me. I am blushing so often every time I am with her. I even tried kissing her yesterday. Thinking of that day makes my heart pound. But, to be honest, I wish it happened. I want to...ugh, not again. What's wrong with me?

"Let's go to her." Serena disturbs me.

"O-oh. Right." I reply.

We walk to our teacher.

"Okay..." She digs through the sheets of paper in her hands.

She takes out a sheet of paper and hands it to us.

"Here. I have chosen a volcano for you guys." She says.

"A volcano? Sounds interesting." I say.

"On this sheet are the instructions on how to make one." She says.

"Alright. Thanks miss." Serena says.

As I walk back and take a seat beside Serena, I catch Calem looking at me. I know he told me to stay away from her, but that ain't happening. I'm not afraid of him or anything, so he can buzz off.

For the last hour of this period, Serena and I decide to meet up at my place this weekend to start on the project. I know we probably won't get it finished in one day, but we can always meet up again some other time.

The bell rings, and Serena, Misty, Clemont and I walk to second together.

"I wanted to be Serena's partner, until you beat me to her!" Misty glares at me.

"Ehh...sorry." I sweatdrop.

"Who is your partner?" Serena asks.

"Clemont." Misty points to him.

"Well, Clemont is a genius when it comes to science. He'd be a great partner." Serena says.

"Hehe, I guess genius is the right word." Clemont blushes and scratches his head.

"True. Glad to have you as my partner, dude." Misty smiles.

"Glad to have you as mine too." Clemont replies.

Once we get to Poke Training, we decide to switch up the seats a little. I sit down beside Serena, and beside Serena is Dawn. The three facing us in front are Clemont, Kenny and Gary.

"I hope you all studied for the test today." My teacher says.

"T-test?!" Gary gulps.

"You didn't know? Don't you remember? She clearly said we have a test today a few days ago." Dawn says.

"I know, I remember. I just forgot about it." He sweatdrops.

He quickly takes out a pen and begins writing cheat notes on his hand.

"Gary! You can't do that!" Kenny says.

"Shhh!! Don't tell her." Gary glances at the teacher, making sure she wasn't watching.

"Did you study?" Serena turns to me.

"Uh, a little." I shrug. "I didn't have too much time. Did you?"

"Yup." She nods.

"Alright. You may begin once you get the test." She says as she begins handing it out.

Once I get my test, I read all the questions. I sigh of relief once I realize how easy the test looked. I knew the answer to the majority of the questions. My teacher gives us the whole period to write it. I take out a pencil from my bag and begin writing.

* * * * *

The morning passes by, and now it is time for lunch. I take a seat beside Gary and the others.

"This stupid ink won't come off." Gary roughly rubs his hands.

"That's what you get for writing cheat notes on your hand." Paul smirks.

"Wash them in the bathroom." Drew says.

"Bathroom is too far." Gary sighs.

Gary spits into his hands and uses his saliva to clean his hand.

I hear everyone groan and make disgusted faces at Gary.

As they talk, I just slowly eat and stare off into space. I am not paying much attention to them, instead I am thinking about...Serena. The way I have been acting lately bothers me. I have never acted like this towards a girl before. It concerns me, because I can't get her out of my mind.

"Ashy-boy! Why are you so quiet today?" Gary looks at me.

"H-huh? Oh, sorry. Just doing a little thinking." I say.

"About what?" Barry asks.

"N-nothing." My cheeks turn pink.

Gary looks at me and raises his eyebrow.

"You are blushing. What's the matter Ashy-boy?"

"It's nothing, really." I nervously say.

"I don't think so. You look like you have something in your mind."

I figure that they are not going to stop asking me until I say what I'm thinking about. I decide to just tell them. Maybe they can help.

"Okay, fine. I-it's...Serena." I quietly say.

"Serena? What about her?" Clemont asks.

"I can't help but think about her. I can't stop. And I am feeling all these weird emotions whenever I am around her." I blush.

"Mhm, continue." Gary says as he drinks his water.

"Like, yesterday, Calem told me he likes her. It made me feel jealous." I say.

"That's all?" Kenny says.

"Y-yeah..." I nod.

"You like Serena?" Drew asks.

"H-huh?" I blush. "I don't think so..."

"You don't think so? Come on, Ashy-boy. What you told us are all normal things every person experiences on their crush. There is nothing wrong with that." Gary says.

"But I am not too sure on how I am feeling right now." I sigh.

"Okay...let me test you." Gary says.

"Test me? Umm, okay then." I say confused.

"You can only answer each question with a yes or a no. Got it?"

"Yeah." I nod.

"Kay. Do you think she is beautiful?"

"H-huh? I um, don't know. I guess-"

"Ahem. Yes or no?" Gary looks at me.

I pause for a while, not knowing what to say. Finally, I pick up the courage to answer his question.

"Yes."

"Okay. Do you find yourself looking at her from time to time?"

"Yes."

"If you had the chance to ask her on a date, would you?"

"Yes."

"If she ever tried to kiss you, would you stop her?"

"N-no."

I start to understand what Gary is saying. I am starting to undestand what I am feeling right now.

"Imagine Calem asking her out. They start dating. Would you like that?"

"No..."

"And lastly, let me ask you this one more time. Do you like Serena? Do you have a crush on her?" Gary smiles.

I look at the floor, and back at Gary and the others.

"Yes."