May's Crush

Chapter 1:Confidential

The sun was shining brightly over the Kanto Region. The sky was a clear blue, not a single cloud in the sky. Four travelers marched on in the cool shade of a cliff face in spite of the late afternoon humidity. The clear sky didn't stop a certain brown-haired girl from getting her head in the clouds, however.

"C'mon May! Try to keep up!"

May was brought out of her daydream by a boy calling to her from further up the road. She looked up to see the boy with a yellow Pokémon sitting on his shoulder. Next to him was her brother, staring at her from behind his glasses. A close friend of theirs whom they were also traveling with had a concerned look on his older face.The three of them stopped about ten yards ahead of her, all of them staring in her direction.

"Honestly," the boy in the red hat complained as he approached her with Pikachu sitting on his shoulder, "You've been a space-case ever since the end of the Grand Festival. What's up?"

"Oh, it's nothing!" May assured him, not making contact with his auburn eyes. She'd always been a terrible liar, especially to her friends. Not looking into his calming eyes makes this easier , she thought. She instead decided to focus on his blue sweat shirt, his baggy jeans, his strong arms…

May refocused her thoughts on his Pikachu. He beamed a smile at her face with large, dark eyes. The red patches on his face concealed a massive electric charge. He had bright yellow fur, a lightning bolt shaped tail, and-

"Hello, earth to May?" The boy who owned the Pikachu waved his hand clad in black fingerless glove in front of her face. "Are you feeling alright?" he said as he looked into her large, sapphire colored eyes.

"Oh, I'm fine, Ash!" May waved her white gloved hand in front of him in an attempt to shoo him off. She turned away from him and looked up at the cliff. "I guess I just feel like I'm being followed, I guess."

Her brother walked closer to her, knowing that there was more to this than she let on. "I think you're hiding something, May. What is it this time? Did you waste all of your money again?"

"Of course not!" May retorted to her dark-haired brother, "How irresponsible do you think I am?"

Adjusting his glasses and smiling, he knew she just took the bait. "Oh, I'd say VERY irresponsible. Remember that time your Bulbasaur was eating things and getting lost in trucks back in Hoenn?" he started.

Ash knew where this was headed, so while May and her brother argued with each other, he approached his older friend, who had focused his narrow eyes on a small, yellow device. He pressed its buttons, growled when the outcome wasn't what he wanted, pressed more buttons and let out a sigh when he had got it to work properly.

"Did you figure out how to work it, Brock?" Ash asked his friend.

Brock furrowed his eyebrows. He reached into the pocket in his brown cargo pants and pulled out the manual to the small device. The word, 'PokéNav' was written in small letters. "This stuff is just too hard for me to read," Brock explained. "I figured I'd just play around with it until I figured it out." He sighed, "This is just like video games. I'm simply no good." His look returned to cheerful. "I did, however," he told Ash sounding like he had just achieved a great victory, "get it to display the map."

"That's good," Ash said, smiling. "Are we gonna reach a Pokémon Center before nightfall?" Ash asked him, "I think May and Max are gonna need to take a long sleep after this one."

Brock focused his gaze on the LCD display on the PokéNav. He hit a few buttons an cracked a smile. "There's a Pokémon Center not far from here. We should be able to see it soon." Brock told his traveling companion.