The 'Outcast' - First Year

Part 14

The day after Gary's fairly disappointing party Ash and Barry stuck around for a while before heading off their separate ways. For Ash personally after Halloween he began to view himself differently for some reason. He noticed how much he'd been opening up to people more often than usual. He didn't notice when he began feeling like this or even why.

Few days later...

Anyways another boring day at school sees Ash and Barry right in the middle of a battle against two students. Paul and Trip watched from the sidelines of the field while Dawn, and her group of friends watched from a distance.

"Frogadier! Use water Pulse on the Talonflame!" Ash stated.

Frogadier began charging up a powerful water pulse and with one swift motion launched it towards the flying fire type. The Talonflame attempted to dodge it but the water pulse came too quickly knocking it out in what hit.

"That's it for him. He's all out of Pokémon. Now we get his last one," Barry muttered.

"Let's not get too ahead of ourselves here. No matter the situation or lead we have... it's always possible to lose," Ash responded calmly. The other trainer who had one Pokémon left, Unfezant, looked to be panicking now that he was alone.

"Unfezant, use Aerial ace on the Frogadier!"

Unfezant gathered some power and flew into the direction of Frogadier with malicious intent. As it closed in on him, Frogadier looked back at Ash and nodded seemingly knowing what to do. 

Frogadier dodged.

Unfezant continuously tried to land a hit with Aerial ace but Frogadier was way too fast. Unfezant cornered Frogadier time and time again only for it to escape last second. He twisted and turned from every Aerial ace that nearly connected.

"Yo... the agility of his Frogadier is insane..." Trip pointed out. Paul nodded in agreement keeping his eyes on the battle unfolding in front of them.

"Now Frogadier... get up close and use cut!"

In the blink of an eye Frogadier sprinter and jumped up into the air catching both the trainer and Unfezant off guard. He used his cut on Unfezant.

"Now finish it with Aerial ace!" Frogadier used the flying type move and down went Unfezant into the ground.

"Unfezant is unable to battle. Wow Ash, you're on fire dude," Barry said, clapping.

"That's two in a row right? That other double battle we won the other day..." Ash reminded him.

"Oh yeah," Barry chuckled. "Imagine if we started a win streak." 

"That would be cool... but also difficult to stay consistent," Ash said.

Paul and Trip walked up to them. "Alright dudes, good battle. Let's get to class now. You know how Rowan is when we're late," Paul spoke. Everyone groaned at the mention of his name. It was clear that they didn't think highly of Professor Rowan. 

Rowan's classroom.

Nearly two hours of listening to Professor Rowan bark out his lecture was bad enough... no one expected it to become worse.

"Now listen up... you guys have a project coming up. It's not Mega evolution and I do anticipate it will take a couple of weeks. You will need A partner and that's it. No more than two," Professor Rowan said.

Immediately after that Barry raised his hand.

"No. You can't use the restroom Barry. There's five minutes left of class," Rowan explained.

Gary raised his hand next.

"No, you cannot choose who your partner will be. I'm going to be deciding that," Rowan explained once more. Everyone in the class groaned at his answer. Obviously everyone was hoping to partner up with their friends.

"Welp, there goes that plan," Dawn muttered.

As Professor Rowan went on with calling out the names he finally got to the last two.

"Ash and Serena," He finished.

"I just don't understand why you're forcing us to work together sir," Ash spoke up. Everyone in the class looked at him, surprised that he had said something. Usually he had a mellow presence and kept to himself.

"I'm sorry? Would you like to repeat that for me young man?" Rowan asked sternly. 

"I mean who am I kidding? There's got to be a rule that states a teacher can't just force us to work with others rather than individually." Ash Said.

"Look new kid... I know you're more of an independent type of student... but this is my class, my rules, and my class expectations aren't meant to suit you. These are just decisions I made," Rowan explained.

"Pretty stupid ones if you ask me..."  He muttered quietly.

Rowan clearly heard the remark and didn't take it lightly.

"Excuse me?? Did you just call me stupid young man?!" Rowan said, just beginning to raise his voice a bit.

"No, no, no. I called your decision stupid, not you sir. I just don't get-

"It's just a project dude!" Zoey interfered. The short red haired girl was fed up with Ash's nonchalant attitude already. "It's not like she is going to bite you or anything. Serena is a really nice girl." The rest of the class turned to see how Ash would respond.

"What? No one's talking to you. Be quiet," Ash fired back. Zoey looked stunned for a moment before ultimately keeping her mouth shut as told. Hearing this Paul smirked. The purpler haired trainer and Zoey had a bad history with each other.

'I could get used to this Ketchum guy.' Paul smirked.

"Easy Ash. Please be respectful to your peers. Why is it so hard for you to-

"It's okay Professor Rowan," Serena suddenly spoke up. Now the attention in the class turned to the honey blonde performer.

"I'm sorry?" Rowan asked.

"It's fine. If he wants to work alone... I have no problem working independently myself," Serena smiled softly. She tried her very best to hide her disappointment but deep down, she'd hoped that he would at least appreciate her little gesture. For a second Ash seemed stunned that someone finally agreed with him and understood his way of thinking.

"See? Even she agrees with me," Ash smiled smugly. "What are you going to say about that?"

Professor Rowan scoffed. "You're a stubborn one..." Having no other choice he finally agreed to having Ash work by himself as well as Serena. As for Serena, she was hoping to have her first big opportunity to get closer to Ash, but she also wanted him to be comfortable.

Finally the class was over and as Ash headed out of class he heard a voice behind him speak out.

"Why did you do that Ash?"

To be continued...