Younger Years (ALTERNATIVE: SAVING HIM)

Reasons

Serena woke up in the early hours of the morning and made her way to the bus stop. As she arrived she saw Calem standing by the sign and walked over to him.

"Hey babe." she said as she stood next to him.

"Hey." he said, wrapping his arm around her shoulder.

Dawn was just getting to the bus stop when she saw them, it was no secret that all of Serena's friends hated Calem so Dawn quickly ran up and grabbed Serena's arm. She pulled her away from Calem and sat her on the bench where they started talking immediately. 

Serena glanced at Calem to see an annoyed look on his face, she was well aware of how her friends felt about him but decided to ignore it for the time being. After a while everyone else arrived as well and then the bus came. 

Red was sitting up against the school drawing Pikachu when the bus arrived, he quickly finished the sketch and beckoned Pikachu to his shoulder. They made their way away from the people getting off the bus, hoping to avoid Serena and her questions. Red made his way to class and took his seat, he was already unpacked when the other students arrived to class.

Serena took her seat in class and looked around her for her friends before remembering she didn't have any in this class. The class went by quickly and before long the day did to, Serena was in her last class, Pokemon Battling.

Red was waiting on the bleachers of the battlefield when the teacher called out, "Today we will have a battle between Calem and Red."

Red walked to his side and looked across the battlefield at Calem who was smirking. Red had heard the whispers as he walked up that Calem was the strongest battler in the school, but he wasn't so sure of that.

"This battle will be a one on one battle!" the teacher yelled.

"Go Chesnaught!" Calem called out.

"Pikachu, you ready?" Red asked his friend who nodded with a grin and hopped down to battle.

"Battle begin!" the teacher yelled once more.

"Chesnaught use Wood Hammer!" Calem commanded.

"Pikachu, give it back." Red said calmly.

Chesnaught's arm glowed green as the glowing log formed, he slammed it down at Pikachu. But just before it could hit him Pikachu slammed an Iron Tail into it sending back towards Chesnaught. The Wood Hammer slammed into Chesnaughts face and sent it stumbling back. 

"Now Pikachu, Quick Tail." Red called out the move combination.

Pikachu shot into a Quick Attack, his tail still glowing white, and as he neared Chesnaught he spun around. Pikachu's Iron Tail slammed into the side of Chesnaughts head, sending him flying to the side. Then Pikachu shot towards him again and slammed the Iron Tail down on Chesnaughts head from above him, sending him crumpling to the ground.

As Chesnaught hit the ground, smoke shot up around the battlefield and when it cleared, Chesnaught had swirls in its eyes. Pikachu ran back to Red and he began to walk away to take his seat.

"T-the victor is Red!" the teacher called out, amazed by the schools strongest battler being demolished like that.

The whole class was silent for a moment, then they erupted into cheers and clapping. Red simply hid his face as the teacher called out for silence. Calem still stood on the battlefield, holding Chesnaughts pokeball.

"How?" Calem muttered as he walked towards Red.

Red looked up at him but was soon dragged to his feet as Calem grabbed his collar and reared his fist. Calem went to punch Red but Red simply bent his head away and grabbed the arm of the hand that was holding him. He pushed Calem away from him and he landed with a thud on the ground, Red calmly walked away but Serena noticed a small smile on his face, "That was a fun battle, thanks." 

Calem was stunned by Reds words, the entire class watched on as the bell rang and Red walked away from the rest of the class. Soon after the initial shock the rest of the class walked out, but Serena couldn't believe that not only did he act kindly to Calem but he smiled a little. She decided then that she was going to double her efforts to find out why he hated her. 

Serena ran past Calem who was still on the ground, she had one thing on her mind. She had to talk to Red. Serena ran through the campus of the school and eventually ended up at the woods that Red used to get home. She searched though the woods until she found him training again, for some reason she almost didn't want to disturb him but she ran in anyway.

"Red!" Serena yelled to him.

Red turned to face her with one eyebrow raised, as if to ask what she wanted.

"I still want to know why you hate me. But more importantly I saw that smile back at the battlefield, you never smile so that got me thinking. Just who were you before you got so bitter?" Serena asked him.

Red was shocked at first that she noticed his smile but then his eyes narrowed once more and he glared his cold glare at her, "You of all people should know that."

"My mom seems to think I know you from somewhere, is that right?" Serena blurted out before he could walk away.

"She's right, but that's only half of why I don't like you." Red told her before walking away, leaving her standing alone in the clearing.

Serena stood there, stunned by his words, she wasn't some miss popular so it couldn't be that. She wasn't mean to him either so why did he hate her, and she still didn't know where she knew him from. Serena walked out of the clearing and made her way home to ask her mother, but when she got home she saw Calem sitting on her porch.

"C'mon I already talked to your mom, we're going to the party that Tierno's hosting." Calem told her, and before she could protest Calem had taken Serena's arm and was excitedly dragging her to the party.

Red sat on his bed and pulled out his phone only to see a text.

???-you don't know me but let's just say I have my ways to get your number, whole schools at a party tonight and we need a good battler. I heard about your battle with Calem and figured you might wanna join us? It's not an alcohol party or anything like that just some fun battles and stuff. Here's the Address: 175 Rayquaza Rd. Lumiose City 

Red stared at the text before deciding that a good battle could be nice so he stood up and walked downstairs.

"Mom, I'm going to some thing tonight because they have battles." he told his mother.

"Oh that's my Ash alright, always ready for a battle." Delia said with a smile, 'Have fun!"

With that Red walked outside and called out Charizard before they flew off towards Lumiose City. Somehow he knew though that this was a bad idea.