The Bucket List

The Call

"Misty!" Daisy yelled from the kitchen. She had been trying to cook a meal for her weekly date with Tracey that night, but she couldn't find any of the ingredients or pots and pans she needed to make the meal. Usually, Misty cooked the meals, so only she knew where the supplies were. Grumbling in irritation, Daisy rolled her eyes and muttered a string of profanity under her breath. "She probably hid them some, like, obscure place just to, like, spite us."

Banging around the kitchen, Daisy opened and closed cabinet doors, making sure to create as much noise as she could. If Misty was ignoring her, maybe she could generate enough noise to bring her into the kitchen. Oh well if it brought along Misty's wrath. At least Daisy would be getting what she needed.

"Misty!" Daisy yelled even louder. Her shouts still yielded no response. Giving in to the fact that Misty was outside the radius of her voice, or perhaps even swimming, Daisy slammed the pantry door and stalked out of the kitchen. She hated having to go to Misty. "This is ridiculous."

As Daisy crossed the floor from the kitchen to the steps leading down to the central part of the gym, she suddenly heard a loud crash followed by the sound of a broom clattering on the floor. Fearing someone was trying to break in, Daisy grabbed one of the few Pokéballs she had and gripped it tightly in her hand. Quietly tiptoeing down the steps, making sure not to step on the creaky parts, Daisy was prepared to catch a burglar in the act. When she rounded the corner, though, the last thing she expected to see was Misty passed out on the floor, the cleaning bucket tipped over, its contents leaking all over the floor and into the pool.

OoO

Although it had not been too long ago, Ash could barely remember the last time he had seen any of his friends. Since his homecoming party three years ago, he was pretty sure he'd met Max for lunch when the Hoenn native had crossed paths with Ash while traveling through Sinnoh. He'd seen May when she invited him to watch her in a contest in Saffron. The last he had heard, Gary was off researching a remote island rumored to have rare Pokémon never seen before. Hadn't he visited Brock about a year ago when he'd passed through Pewter on his way to Pallet?

While he could just barely remember where he'd last seen his friends, what stuck with him the most was what he continued to promise them each time they parted ways. He'd promised that he would try to visit more than just the occasional holiday or when they happened to cross paths. Two years later, though, and he'd had yet to own up a single one of those promises.

Sure, he talked on the phone with them now and then. But, except for his mother, his conversations with his friends always felt rushed. Either he was in a hurry, or they could only talk for a few minutes because they were just as busy. He hated to admit it, but he'd lost contact with his friends over time. Life had just gotten in the way. It was unavoidable.

"Ash?" A voice called out to him, "You have a phone call."

"Huh?" Snapping out of his daydream, Ash looked up to see his girlfriend, Layla, trying to hand him the phone. "Oh, thanks."

"Sure," she replied, a smile on her face. "It's Brock."

Ash had been dating Layla for almost a year. The two had met when she had challenged him to a Pokémon battle. For once in his life, Ash felt too hungry to battle, so Layla suggested that the loser treat the winner to lunch. Confident he would earn a free meal, Ash agreed to her challenge. It had been a close battle, but Ash proved victorious, and, true to her word, Layla treated Ash to lunch at a nearby noodle shop.

During their lunch, Ash learned that she was from Fortree City, the baby sister of three older brothers, and an aspiring Frontier Brain. Between shoveling food into his mouth, Ash found himself at ease while talking to Layla about his travels and adventures. Then again, it might have been because he couldn't help but notice how pretty her dark brown eyes were, and how her long, wavy blonde hair made her look. At the time, she had it pulled to the side in a braid so that he could see the strands of light brown intermixed with the blonde. They stood out most when the sun would shine on her hair. And scattered about under her eyes and on her cheeks were tiny freckles.