A Dream, A Destiny

Some explaining to do

Ash's Bucket List- Eat all 31 flavors of Ice cream.

Serena POV

My meeting with the Financial Aid officer at school lasted far longer than I thought it would. Usually, he just told me what I needed to know, exchanged a few pleasantries about the weather, and then I was free to go.

I had no idea Mr. Wulfric was such a hardcore Man City fan. Yup, you read right. A Man City fan. Meaning that he had kept me in his office for a full 20 minutes after our scheduled meeting simply because he wanted to talk about the recent game. And since I could never resist a chance to open my mouth...you know the score.

It was after 4pm when I finally managed to get away from Mr. Wulfric and I arrived at Central Park out of breath. I scanned around my surrounding, hoping that Ash hadn't upped and left.

Sure, I was only 20 minutes late, but I knew from experience that some guys just didn't like to be kept waiting.

Hopefully Ash isn't that impatient. Because the ice cream offer definitely sounded good, it could be just the thing to lift me out of the dark cloud that Mr. Wulfric had set over my head.

All that I could think of as I walked to the park was what he'd had to say. Tuition at Lumiose was being raised but the organization that contributed to my fees wasn't planning to increase the amount of money it already forked out. Therefore, it fell to my mum to pay the remainder.

I cringed, firmly holding my fully pink long sleeved jacket shut as I thought about it.

I wasn't relishing telling her the news. We were already struggling right now, even with my mum working two jobs to support us.

Maybe I'll have to drop out. I wasn't looking forward to that prospect. I'd been a Lumiose student since 8th grade and while I didn't consider myself too good for public school, I was a little nervous about making new friends and leaving my old ones behind.

Change is good! Telling myself that didn't work. Then stop thinking about it, Serena. Happy thoughts. Unfortunately, I didn't have too many happy thoughts to grab hold of.

As I entered the park which was a peaceful place to sit around. I spotted Ash straight ahead, who was bent over a patch of grass by Turtle Pond. I immediately smiled thankfully. He's still here. That was a happy thought right there.

When Ash texted me in the middle of Math, asking me to meet him here, I had actually heaved a sigh of relief so loud that my teacher actually laughed at me and said that the problems on the board weren't that hard.

How was she to know that after the drama at the shop, I had stayed up most of the night, sure that Ash would never talk to me again and that he would tell everyone what an insanely overprotective friend I had? Nobody but May, Dawn and miss. Viola knew about Alain's violent outbursts and I definitely hadn't wanted Ash to witness them firsthand.

As for the electrified eye contact at lunch- I had stored that in my mental scrap book of Ash moments to go over when I was alone. I didn't think Ash noticed anything out of the ordinary during that intense look, but what I had felt send a jolt right through me. And even though it meant nothing, I intended to remember it. Maybe it meant something, Serena. Maybe he felt what you felt too.

Shaking my head to get rid of these distracting thoughts, I made my way over to Ash, who was still examining the ground intently. A red baseball cap jammed over his unruly jet-raven hair. He was so wrapped up in his own thoughts, looking unbelievably cute as a preoccupied look flitted over his face, that he didn't even notice I was there till I spoke.