All for You

Chapter 55

When the final bell rang, Ash casually tried to grab his backpack, planning on heading to the more private practive field by his dorm. What he wasn't expecting was for a stampede to start.

In the main stadium, where most of the trainers were boys, many of the students weren't too excited about the dance. But the minute Ash stepped out of the stadium, he got ran over by students who were rushing to their dorm rooms.

Ash had been the first one out, so the other students in the class were spared from the trampling, throwing Ash sympathetic glances as they stepped around him.

Ash quickly picked himself up, shaking his head, and follwed the stampede to his own dorm. He didn't know what to do to prepare for a dance, but he'd bet that Gary did.

After worming his way through the (thankfully) thinning crowds, he wriggled his way into his dorm room. Everyone was there but Goh, who was the slowest of the four of them, but came in soon afterwards.

Gary was sitting on the couch, scrolling on his phone, while Drew was watching a pokemon contest on the TV.

"Hey Gary,-" Ash started, wanting to ask him about...everything dressing-up related.

The second Gary noticed Ash, he stood up. "Alright, Ash-boy, we need to get you ready for your date with Serena." He closed in on Ash, who backed away nervously.

"Do we really have to do this now? Isn't the dance at 5?" He sweatdropped.

"It's at 7:00, Ash-boy, but we need to start getting ready now." He explained.

"Why?!" Ash was tired of Gary constantly sharing knowledgeable nonsense about nuisences like niceties.

"You want Serena to have a nice time at the dance, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, we need to rehearse exactly what you're going to do." Gary closed in on Ash, and he was lost to the horrors of mannerisms.

---***---***---***---

The first step was how to walk. This was greatly confusing to Ash because he was quite sure he already knew how to walk. He took a few steps around the room just to be sure. Yep, he was walking.

"No, Ashy-boy, you have to walk like you're dancing."

Oh. So that's what this was. Dancing.

   . 

   .   

   .   

"DANCING!?!?!?!?!?!" Ash shouted.

"What's the matter, Ashy-boy? You're going to a dance. Don't you expect to dance?"

"Well, Gary, I'm a terrible dancer! I just figured that I'd avoid 'dancing' and just stand to the side and grab snacks, or kind of just stand there and watch Serena dance." Ash said, scratching the back of his head. He realised, now, that it was kind of a stupid plan, but it was the best he had. He was hopeless when it came to dancing.

"Well, Ashy-boy, now the Oakster's going to teach you how. Now walk, while dancing."

Ash sighed, resigned to his fate. Hopefully Gary would give up when he saw how hopeless the cause was.

Ash walked across the floor one more time, Gary looking at his pokephone the whole time. "Wrong."

"Why?" Ash didn't even object to the fact that he had walked incorrectly, or the fact that Gary hadn't even looked up from his phone to watch him walk incorrectly.

Before answering, Gary tapped his phone, prompting the television to start playing an upbeat dance song.

Ash tapped his toe to the beat, enjoying the tune, while Gary berated him. "You slouched your shoulders too much, you were looking down at your feet, and you kept your arms to your sides while focusing on your feet." Gary hadn't even been watching Ash as he walked across the room, but at this point Ash wasn't suprised.

"Take a step to the beat, keeping in time. Don't bob or cock your head, though you can nod lightly. Arms natural, swinging to the beat, but not over-exageratedly. And eyes up, smiling."

Ash tried to remember all the steps and took another go at it. 

"Much better, but still pretty bad. You need to relax a bit. It should feel natural, and most importantly, On. The. Beat. Try again."

Ash sighed, knowing Gary wouldn't let him be, and walked across the room again. Why do I have to practive how I walk? How will that help when I dance with Serena?!

"Better, but this time you forgot to look up. If you can't rely on your natural rythm to keep in step to the music, let me try another song." Gary turned back to his pokephone and switched the song that was playing on the TV. This one had many little beats before a larger *thump*, making it easier for Ash to track when to take a step.

"Since your rythm is so bad, and I mean really bad, like soo bad-"

"Alright, alright, get on with it, Gary."

"-Use the beats to time your step. Foerget about all the other things I already talked about, like the head-up or the relaxed arms, and for now just focus on timing your steps to the beat. Your foot should be halfway up at the snare drum right... there, and land on the ground at the big beat... now. Try for yourself."

Ash stared at his feet and stepped at the beat. At first, he was constanly stepping to late, then too early to compensate, but as he grew more used to the beat, he actually managed to keep his rythm as he walked in a circle around their dorm room.

"Great, now relax your arms."

Ash imputed his arms into his routine, and (barely) kept his steps in time with the beat.

"Now look up."

Ash slowly impurted all the steps Gary had told him, so he was officially walking around the room in time to the beat.

"Hey, you actually got it! Alright, now let's get into some more advanced stuff." Gary had a mischevous grin on his face.

"Oh boy..."

 ________......._______ 

Jessie, James and Meowth were on an airship heading to Kalos to capture Ash. Jessie and Meowth were relaxing on the rows of seats in the back while James piolted.

James shifted in his seat uncomfortably. "Does anyone else feel a bit bad about kidnapping the twerp?"

"What do you mean?" Replied Jessie, annoyed. The trip was taking a long time, and she was extra irritable. She had already asked James to 'drive faster' 5 times now. "The boss told us to kidnap the twerp, so that's what we're going to do."

"Yes, but kidnapping a human being is a bit disconcerting, don't you think?" James said worridly. He wasn't very comfortable with this.

"We kidnap Pikachu all the time." Jessie said dismissively. "What's the difference?"

"Well, Pikachu's a pokemon. Pokemon get traded all the time, switching owners. But the Twerp is a human. We're not stealing him, we're kidnapping him. Besides, why do you think the boss want him? What is he going to do to him?" Once James started voicing his concerns, he couldn't stop.

"Chill out, Jimmy. I'm sura da boss wouldna' hurt da twerp too badwy. Besides, da twerp's too stubborn ta just give up if someting goes wong in a bad way." Meowth reasoned.

Jessie thought about this before taking her side. "James had a point, though. There is something a bit... uncomfortable about kidnapping the Twerp. We're not kidnappers, we're thieves."

"It's fine. Beswides, da boss told us ta get da twerp, so we's gonna get da twerp." Meowth said, unwavering.

"I suppose the boss did say so." James agreed relectantly.

"Exactwy! So let's stwop tawkin' bout what we'yra gonna do, and how we's gonna do it." Meowth concluded.

James nodded, accepting the argument, before turning his attention to the actual plan. "I'm thinking a giant robot arm..."