May's Crush

Chapter 9:Center

"This is Cerulean City, right?" May asked Ash as they arrived in the Pokémon Center.

"Yeah, what about it?" Ash answered her, not knowing where she was going with it.

"Isn't this where your friend Misty lives?" May asked him.

"Yeah, and what about that?" Ash replied as they walked to the counter. "Hey, Nurse Joy!" Ash said as he rung the bell on the desk.

"Hello, and welcome to our Pokémon Center," the ever familiar Pokémon Nurse stepped out and introduced herself. A large, pink round Pokémon stepped out behind Joy. She had a plain looking smile on her face. On top of her round, egg shaped body was a small nurse. She also wore a small apron,

"Chansey!" the Pokémon greeted the visiting trainers.

"Joy, do you have any male relatives that run a Pokémon Center in the wilderness?" Ash asked her.

"Did you run into Joseph?" Joy got an annoyed look across her normally calm face.

"Uh, yeah," May interrupted, "Why is that?"

Joy sighed, "He's one of the very few boys born to our family this generation. He's a good doctor for the Pokémon, but he keeps that Skarmory around."

"That did seem a little off…" May mentioned.

"That Skarmory was his first Pokémon, and together they promised that they would be the greatest Pokémon Center running team in the world," Joy told them the short story. "The problem is that Skarmory isn't the gentlest of Pokémon, even though she means well."

Ash wanted to get to the chase. "Well, we have some friends there, and we'd like to have the number for that center so we can call them."

"Oh," spat Joy, miffed that the people who she was talking to seemed to want to move on and leave her alone to be lonely again, "here's the number." She handed Ash a piece of paper with the phone number hastily scribbled on it. Ash and May left their Pokémon with the nurse (including Pikachu this time), and went to call their friends.

"Ash! May! You're both okay!" were the first words out of Brock's mouth, having answered the phone. Hearing the shout, Max, Drew, and Doctor Joseph ran over to the monitor to see if he was telling the truth.

"May!" Max leapt in Brock's face to see his sister. She smiled back at him and nodded through the monitor.

"Maybe we should all use different phones?" Brock suggested, moving Max back into the background.

May and Max went to separate phones on their respective sides of the phone and called each other. Brock and Ash continued their conversation uninhibited. Ash told Brock that they had fallen into the lake, but he had saved himself and May. He also noted May's quick response to his wounds for saving his life.

"That sounds bad, Ash," Brock commented this far into the story, "Are you and Swellow alright?"

"Yeah," Ash smiled to his friend, "like I told you, May ripped her bandana off and used it to bind my wounds. I calmed Swellow down, he's alright." Ash continued his story, talking about how May and himself camped out, found food the next morning, and found the trail to Cerulean City. He, of course, left out details like May borrowing his shirt and the food-fight they had. He did mention the Watmel berries and the story of the sign.

"I remember that sign," Brock laughed, "That was a long time ago. I'm surprised it didn't get replaced before now."

"I'm kinda glad it wasn't," said Ash, "it's kinda like an artifact from my early days. I still thought it was pretty funny when May wrote over it, though."