Cherry Laurel

"Hey, Ash. Can you come here for a second?"

The Pallet born trainer looked up from his lunch (a sandwich prepared by Mr. Mime) to see Chloe beckoning him from behind an arch in Cerise Park, one of the structures that helped divide the area into multiple areas. The first thing he noticed about her was that her clothes (yellow overalls that she sometimes wore when she joined Goh and himself on an adventure) were incredibly muddy all down the front. A look at her hands confirmed this, and there were even a few streaks of dirt on her cheeks. But there was a confident smile on her face, and at her feet stood Yamper and Eevee, both also incredibly muddy.

Had they been digging something?

Ash, for his part, was dressed regularly, shorts and vest as he sat with his team eating lunch while he planned on the afternoon's training. Goh was supposed to be back from the make-up school he was forced into this weekend after bombing his last test, but if he wasn't, he'd make the most of the time he had anyway.

Quickly gulping down the rest of his sandwich (an action that his Pokémon took to mean to hurry up themselves) and quaffing down a gulp of water, he gave her a thumbs up. "Sure! What's up?"

"There's something I want to show you, but you have to come here."

"Show me something...? Did you teach Eevee a new move?"

She laughed, rubbing the back of her head. "Nothing that exciting, I'm afraid," she said, her eyes looking away. "Please?"

He jumped to his feet. "I'm comin'! I wanna see it!"

Pikachu was quick to his shoulder and the rest of his Pokémon were fast behind him.

Chloe turned and led Ash around the corner to where, if she was to be believed, there was something incredible to show him. Around the corner, on the edge of the flower garden in Cerise Park, there was a newly planted shrub. The ground all around it was freshly watered and very muddy, which told Ash why Chloe and her Pokémon were so muddy.

Chloe gestured to the shrub, an excited look on her face, as though she was saying 'ta-dah!'. Eevee and Yamper helped her surround the shrub and tried to emphasize its importance. "Here it is!" she said, a wide grin on her face. "It's something I've been thinking about doing for a while, and today seemed like the best time to do it, since Goh told me it was your birthday today."

Ash looked at the shrub for a second, confused as to how this plant could be connected to his birthday. While he did learn a bit about plants from Brock, Cilan, and Mallow, he didn't immediately recognize the significance of this particular one. "It's a shrub?" he asked, perplexed.

"It's a laurel!" she interjected, excitedly. "Specifically, a cherry laurel." She turned to it and ran her hand gently over it's leaves. "Laurels are plants that symbolize victory. In ancient times, people would make wreaths of their branches and use them to crown winners, whether it be in sports, academics, or Pokémon battles." Chloe stopped her excited explanation, laughing at herself a bit.

Ash was still a bit confused. "It's a pretty cool plant, Chloe," he offered, laughing to himself somewhat as well. "Did you plant it yourself?"

She looked at him, trying to play it off as a joke. "No, it just popped up like this and got Yamper, Eevee, and I all muddy," she quipped sarcastically. "Yes! I planted it. I help out at school in the garden sometimes, if you didn't remember."

Ash nodded. "Oh, right! You do handle that sometimes, don't you?"

This caught Chloe off-guard. "I... honestly didn't expect you to remember that," she admitted. "The last time I brought it up around you... well, I didn't exactly make the best first impression. Or second. Or even third or fourth."