"I really do feel bad...." I said while chewing my bottom lip nervously. Drew patted my head suddenly and I looked up at him in surprise.

"Come on, trust me with this. I'll have it smoothed over in no time," he said with an aggravatingly cocky smirk. I rolled my eyes at him, but for some reason, I did feel like I could trust this guy...

"If the owner makes you pay damages let me know and I'll pay half," I said firmly. Drew blinked down at me and then grinned, a teasing glint shining in his green eyes.

"You asking me on a date, Sayuri?" he asked with a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows. My cheeks exploded with heat and I quickly backpedaled away from him, shaking my head firmly.

"Don't be an idiot! That's not what I meant," I denied strongly, continuing to back away as Drew followed after me with an amused smirk.

"The more you deny, the more I'm going to think you meant it. I mean, you told me to meet up with you later didn't you? That's what we'd call a date, right?" Drew chased me right out through the hole that the Wooloo had created and followed me with a teasing grin as I walked backwards down the path.

"You are so full of it! Just go be the hero and find the owner of that fence already," I growled, picking up the pace of my awkward backwards shuffle as Drew began to close the distance between us.

"You think I'm a hero?" he asked, now in full-on teasing mode with a wide grin as he watched me scrambling over myself to get away from him.

"No! Just... ugh! I'm going to the Pokemon Center!" I yelled, turning and dashing to the right so I could take the path that looped up the back way to the Pokemon Center. When I glanced behind me I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Drew standing at the fork in the path. He was watching me run away with a huge grin on his face, but at least he wasn't following me anymore.

It didn't take me long to have Nurse Joy look over Simisear and heal him from his paralysis. I was standing outside of the grass gym stadium within thirty minutes and I could hardly contain my excitement. The man behind the counter of the lobby area of the gym took my endorsement card and I chewed my bottom lip as he inspected it. I breathed a sigh of relief though when he turned to the computer and began asking me questions to fill out my profile.

Once I was officially registered he handed me back Drew's endorsement card and informed me that I would need to purchase a special challenger's uniform from the mini store off to the side of the lobby area. I thanked him profusely and hurried over to the little store, where a kind woman helped me pick out my size and even ironed on my chosen number: 6.

Once I had changed into my new clothes, which looked like a soccer uniform, I eagerly went up to the desk. The man who had registered me directed me to the double doors that led to the gym itself.

"Good luck with the gym challenge," the female referee said with a smile before opening one of the doors for me.

"Challenge?" I repeated, pausing mid-step and looking over at her in confusion.

"Oh, you didn't know? Before you battle our gym leader you have to complete a challenge that he created. It's supposed to test your training skills in one form or another. I'm sure you'll do great!" she said as she tapped my shoulder, urging me to go through the doors.

"But what am I supposed..." the door slammed shut before I could finish my question and I frowned heavily. Shrugging off my sense of foreboding though, I turned and surveyed the unexpected area in front of me.

A beautifully manicured lawn spread out before me. Tall hedges created a wide pathway that eventually led towards the second set of doors on the opposite end of the lawn. However, the lawn was divided into three sections by large bales of hay stacked upon each other.

Just when I was wondering how I was supposed to get past the stacked hay, a horribly familiar bleating sent beads of cold sweat down my neck. My eyes darted over to the edge of one of the hedge walls where at least twenty Wooloo were all congregating. Most of them were languidly munching on the short grass, but a few of them had noticed me and were staring at me with a familiar crazed light in their normally adorable faces.

"Oh.... crap," I whimpered.

"Welcome, Challenger Sayuri! Your task is to herd all of the Wooloo over towards the hay bales where they will knock down the wall and allow you into the next area. Happy herding!" a pre-recorded voice rang through the large room. I swallowed quickly and cautiously began walking down the steps towards the first area.

"Herd the Wooloo... Sure. No problem. It's not like they're vicious balls of death ready to flatten me or anything," I muttered to myself as I got to the bottom of the stairs and took my first step on the shorn grass. I didn't bother wondering how they got the grass to grow indoors, every fiber of my body was on high alert as I stared directly at the group of fluffy Wooloo in front of me.

"Oh, and the use of your pokemon is prohibited in herding the Wooloo," the voice rang out through the enclosed area. I glared up at the ceiling, wondering if someone was watching and had seen me reaching for my belt of Pokeballs.

"Bleeeeh."

My body tensed at that innocent sound and when I looked back over at the group of Wooloo I saw that all twenty of them were staring right at me. Swallowing with difficulty, I forced a smile and took a hesitant step closer to them.

"You heard the robotic voice. So... go on." Even to my own ears, my voice did not sound even close to confident as I made a shooing motion at the Wooloo. I whimpered when all twenty of them rolled up into balls while facing towards me.

"Oh, come on...." I whined quietly, but with a herd of Wooloo all coming for me you better believe I booked it like my life depended on it.

Glancing back over my shoulder, I saw all twenty of the fluffballs rolling after me and I hit the gas. The hay bales were coming up quick and I did NOT want to get steamrolled between a pack of crazy Wooloo and scratchy hay, so just before I got to them I planted my feet and leaped for all I was worth. I barely managed to grab onto the edge of a hay bale and thankfully one of the strings holding it together was near the edge that I got a grip on. Ignoring the sharp ends of the dry hay I scrambled up onto the top of the bales.

I had just barely gotten into a kneeling position, breathing heavily from my unexpected climb, when a chorus of bleats sounded behind me. My body stiffened automatically at the sound and I turned to see the Wooloo herd siphoning into an arrow shape as they came straight for the hay bales I was sitting on.

"Well, this sucks," I muttered through my gasps. Turning around I jumped off my hay bale just as the first Wooloo rammed into it. Tumbling through the grass I finally came to a stop and looked up to see the hay bales all toppling over each other as the Wooloo brigade rolled through the destruction they had caused.

"You know I'm supposed to be herding you, right?!" I yelled at the undeterred group who had sighted me and were once again rolling right towards me.

Just when I was about to scramble to my feet though, a high-pitched barking sounded from behind me. I watched in amazement as a squat white and yellow pokemon that looked like a stubby Rockruff raced past me with the most adorable waddle/run heading right for the group of Wooloo. My mouth dropped open in amazement as the whole group of Wooloo parted at the incoming Pokemon. They streamed past me in two rows and all uncurled, looking from me to the little yellow pokemon warily.

I sat up on my ankles and looked over at the little pokemon who was sitting down now, looking proud of himself. Taking advantage of the Wooloo's momentary confusion, I pulled out my Pokedex and scanned my savior, finding out that it was called a Yamper. It was just about the cutest pokemon I had ever seen.

"I love you," I told the little Yamper seriously. He wagged his little tail which made his whole behind shake from his enthusiasm at the compliment and I thought I'd die from the cuteness.

"Will you help me, little buddy?" I pleaded with him, and Yamper cocked his head to the side before barking happily towards me. With the help of Yamper, who I found out later was actually supposed to make herding the Wooloo harder, I managed to get past the next two areas without being flattened by the herd of Wooloo and I made sure to give him a gratitude-filled cuddle before going up the stairs.

When I walked through the doors I found myself in an enclosed tunnel that led me directly onto a grassy pokemon battlefield. The field was enclosed but the ceilings were at least twenty feet tall, and I assumed that was because each gym in Galar had been built on what they called a "Power Spot" which made it possible to dynamax pokemon.

To my shock, the seats that surrounded the battlefield actually had spectators in them! I didn't know how anyone had known I was planning to challenge the gym, but I ignored them as an announcer's voice rang through the enclosed gym. A man with gigantic muscles and a straw hat came out and the announcer introduced him as Milo, the gym leader. He came to the middle of the field and offered me his hand, which I shook before we took our spots on opposite ends of the field.

Even though the Wooloo herding had frazzled me, I felt myself relax now that I was back in my element. I released my Simisear and made quick work of Milo's first pokemon, an absolutely adorable Gossifleur. I had seen several of these galarian grass types floating around in my explorations of the area around Turffield and it had been horribly tempting to catch one of the cute creatures. But I had resisted, and I tried not to feel bad when Simisear had defeated it in only two moves.

Since it was only the first gym it was a two-on-two battle. I knew that Milo would dynamax his second pokemon, so I pre-empted him by calling Simisear back and triggering the dynamax reaction. When I released Simisear the second time I was thrilled at how he grew a good four times bigger than he had been, and when he let out an excited whoop his voice was like a clap of thunder.

Eldegoss's strange grass move that launched seeds the size of large boulders had shaken the ground under my feet and I most definitely did NOT feel safe at that moment being on the battlefield. It had been a little shocking when Simisear had let out a massive stream of insanely hot fire when I had called for a normal Fire Blast attack. But that supercharged move was all it took to take out Milo's Eldegoss. Simisear shrunk back down to his normal size at the end of the battle and I hugged him excitedly at our first Galar win. When I went over to shake Milo's hand and accept his grass badge, I was shocked when pink petals began to gently fall down around me.

I looked around me in confusion, not understanding where the petals were coming from. But when I glanced over at the stadium seats I saw a familiar green-haired boy standing up at the very front of the stands. I could barely make out Roselia standing on his shoulder, but I had no doubt the petals were coming from her. Shaking my head slightly, I couldn't help but smile quietly as I accepted the gym badge from Milo.

Milo directed me to the changing room and congratulated me once again on my win. I bowed to him in gratitude and couldn't help but look back over at Drew. From this distance, I couldn't make out his expression, but I just knew he was giving me one of his cocky grins. When he noticed me looking at him he raised one arm up and tapped his wrist as if pointing to a watch then he pointed to himself and shrugged. I wasn't sure... but I wondered if he was trying to ask if I would go see him after I was done.

My cheeks heated up slightly and I quickly turned around without reacting and swiftly made my way to the changing room. As I changed, I thought back to Drew. Had he really been asking for me to meet up with him? Or was I misunderstanding? I mean, he could've been asking what time it was...... Or not

Ugh, I don't know. If I try to look for him and he DIDN'T mean anything by it he's just going to tease me... I could always pretend I didn't see him...

Choice A: Try to find Drew

Choice B: Don't look for Drew

A/N Not much interaction in that chapter, sorry. Hopefully you are enjoying the story so far though :P