Make sure to re-read chapters 1 and 2, they are short and I made a few small adjustments to them on 4/9/18.

"You have to tell us what happened."

"I already told you, I don't know. I was asleep, and when I regained consciousness I was in front of her."

"Stop lying. You couldn't physically be unconscious while you were murdering someone. That just isn't possible."

"I'm not lying! I loved my mother, why would I kill her?"

"You should be answering that yourself."

This is how the questioning went. For hours. The discussion went in circles, with Dawn refusing she did anything and the police furiously believing that she definitely committed the murder. It was obvious who was going to win here.

"You're just a cold-hearted murderer. Admit it."

"N-no, I'm not. I would never kill someone!"

She was beginning to falter. Being accused so openly was like a bullet to the stomach.

"Then why did you kill your own mother? Did you kill your father too? Are you so demented that you could never love another person? Why are you lying, why can't you just admit you did it?" He was asking the questions too fast that she couldn't get a word in. She was hoping that someone would save her. Anyone.

But no one would come.

Dawn awoke with a start. The alarm clock flashed 5:45 in bright red, almost as though the numbers were taunting her. The air was frigid, the only thing maintaining her warmth were the warm blankets surrounding her.

Nightmares weren't uncommon for her, in fact they were more of a common occurrence. The questioning, trials and the mental institution left more of a scar on her than therapists could repair.

In an attempt to distract herself, Dawn focused on getting herself ready for the day. She was told to be ready by 7, since they would be leaving at 7:15. As much as she didn't want to go, she didn't want to make trouble for Delia.

At dinner the previous night, it was just Delia and Dawn. Ash had went out with friends and Leaf was out on a date with a guy. Delia told her some basic information about the two, as well as Dawn's future education at the highschool.

As a child, Dawn was relatively smart for her age. It was no trouble keeping up and even getting ahead while she was in the mental institution, there wasn't much else to do anyways. Besides talk to the people, but that wasn't quite Dawn's thing. She would be starting at the beginning of second quarter, which made it easier in the long-run for everyone. And that day just so happened to be the day after she got into her new living accomodations for the time being.

Dawn would be placed in the junior year, along with Leaf. Leaf was 17, having a birthday early on in the year. Ash, on the other hand, was 18 and a senior. Their father has been out of the picture ever since Leaf's birth, so it was only Delia as a nurse in the mental institution. They weren't amazingly off, but they were well-off because of Delia's parents and her own work.

Dawn moved towards the closet, spreading the doors apart and looking inside. There wasn't a very specific dress code for the school besides basic social standards, but she definitely wasn't going to show off.

Her closet consisted of clothing items that Leaf didn't want from her own closet, and a few items from various stores. Dawn felt bad for inconveniencing them, but it couldn't be helped at this point. Delia did this on her own, and Dawn definitely couldn't stop her.

Deciding on a black V-neck, jeans and a dark blue cardigan, Dawn went out to the shower. There were two bathrooms in the whole house, which would probably be a problem later on. But it seemed that Dawn was the only person awake at this time in the morning, which would make sense.

Stepping into the bathroom, this was the first time that Dawn got a good look at it. The tiles were a blinding white color, matching the shower and sink. Marble adorned the sink and the shower in it's own fashion. The tabs were all a striking silver color. The bathroom wasn't overwhelmingly large in size, but could fit two people doing their own thing comfortably.

Searching the room, Dawn eventually found two towels and set them on the toilet outside of the shower. Walking to the door and locking it shut, she stripped herself of her clothes.

A mirror rested above the sink. Looking at her own reflection made Dawn feel sick. She looked ghostly, her skin pale and her eyes lifeless. Their vivid color couldn't even hide how dead Dawn felt inside.

Turning her gaze away, the turning of the tab led to warm water being shot out of the head. Testing the water, she soon stepped in. They had nothing this nice in the mental institution, and for her first few months she had to be watched so she didn't do anything wrong.

Now it was just her and this shower, and she wanted to savor the warmth enveloping her whole body through the water.

Steam rose throughout the room and Dawn noticed some basic shampoo and body wash on the wall. Rose scented. Delia had mentioned that later in the week Dawn would go shopping with either her or Leaf to buy her own things.

Lathering her body with the rosey suds, the scent permeated through the room. Her hair was next, and soon she smelled as a rose, though her looks were the opposite.

Though the shower was loud, she could hear footsteps outside of the bathroom. It seemed that people were waking up and getting ready for their days. Finished with the shower, she shut the tab off and stepped out of the shower.

Drying off, she put her clothes on and wrapped her hair in a fluffy white towel. The hand-clock on the wall showed that it was 6:15. Time passed by faster than she expected while in the shower, not that she minded. Less awkwardness to deal with.

Exiting the bathroom, she immediately ran into someone who was standing outside of the bathroom.

Expecting it to be Delia, Dawn grew a bit happy. She could confide in someone about how she was feeling a bit nervous about the whole thing.

Until she realized that Delia's chest was definitely not that of a man's. And she did not smell of Axe.

Stumbling back, she found her back pressed against the wall next to the bathroom entrance and Ash stood a few feet away from her. "S-sorry." Quietly escaped her mouth.

Ash stepped closer to her, and Dawn found nowhere to go. His hand slammed on the wall next to her head and his gaze on her was intense. His eyes were a mix of confusion, concern, and curiosity.

"Don't do anything to hurt my mom or my sister. Stay out of our lives as much as possible. Just because my mom decided to be charitable towards you doesn't mean you can impose on whoever you like." His voice tried to be more intimidating than it wanted to be, and Dawn could sense the faltering in his words. He knew that she wouldn't hurt them, but he also had to put up an act to pretend he was the tough guy in the house. He was unsure. She could tell that scared him.

"I won't." Were the only words uttered from her mouth before she pushed past him, briskly walking to her room and shutting the door behind her.

The nerve of that kid. He had no right to do that.

But she didn't blame him.

After all, she was insane according to the papers. He didn't want his family to be hurt, and she could never blame him for that.

Unsure of how to pass the time until breakfast was ready, Dawn spent her time reading the student handbook. There wasn't much information besides the obvious stuff. During the reading, Dawn took the towel out of her hair and found the blue hair mostly dry besides a few damp spots.

Unknowing of how much time had past, Dawn was knocked out of her focused state by a delicate knock on the door. Rising from her seat, Dawn made her way toward the door and opened it to find the brunette teen in front of her.

"Breakfast is ready if you want some. Mom said we should leave a little early so I can show you around the school before the day starts so you have an idea of where you're going." Leaf told her and Dawn gave a small sigh in agreement, exiting her room and closing the door behind her. She motioned forward and let Leaf lead the way down to the breakfast area.

Delia was the only one sitting there at the time, Ash was more than likely still showering since he had to wait for Leaf and Dawn to finish.

There were four spots on the table and they each had pancakes. Two plates had cups of coffee, one had a cup of orange juice, and one had an empty cup.

Leaf sat down at the orange juice, and Dawn followed suit by sitting down at the spot with the empty cup. Delia turned around with a bright smile on her face, too bright for this early in the morning.

"Dawn, what would you like to drink?" Delia's voice was just as perky as she seemed and Dawn didn't know if she should feel happy or concerned that someone could be so happy this early.

"Coffee would be good, heavy on the milk and sugar." She requested in a soft voice, turning her gaze to the fluffy pancakes. There were three doused in maple syrup and a pad of butter placed on top.

"Mom makes the best pancakes." Leaf was already digging in, talking with her mouth full. Dawn couldn't help but give her a small smile, nodding. "They look really good." She agreed.

Grabbing the fork, she had almost forgotten how to use one. Sharp objects were taken away from the people in the mental institution, so it had been years.

After a few attempts, she was finally able to cut through the pancakes as a cup of coffee was placed in front of her. Plunging the fork into the pancakes, she hesitantly put them in her mouth.

They tasted like heaven.

She lived off of mental institution food for 3 years, so it made sense why these tasted good. But they tasted abnormally good. They were genuinely amazing.

"These are really good." She complimented Delia on the pancakes and Delia blushed, waving her off.

"Hardly, they aren't that good." Before Dawn or Leaf could disagree, she grabbed her coat and gave a quick shoulder-hug to the two girls. "But I have to go to work now! I hope you all have a great day and good luck Dawn! I'll be back around 6 tonight so dinner is on you guys unless you want to wait for me to get home."

Dawn and Leaf both waved at Delia, their mouths too full with pancakes to say goodbye. A few moments after the front door closed behind Delia, Ash made his way into the kitchen.

Without saying a word, he sat down in his designated seat and started to devour his pancakes. With his mouth full, he pointed out "You guys only have 5 minutes before we leave. You better eat faster." Glancing at the clock on the wall, Dawn noticed that it was already 6:55, and they did need to leave early.

After they all devoured their pancakes, they all got into the car. Ash drove with Leaf in the passenger seat and Dawn sitting in the back. The car wasn't small but it wasn't big either. It was a normal size car, which Dawn appreciated.

The ride to school was quick and silent.

When they pulled up to the school, Ash had a parking spot near the front. Hopping out of the car, Leaf grabbed onto Dawn's arm almost immediately.

"I'll see ya later bro!" Leaf called back as she dragged Dawn forward into the school. The grass was a nice green, a bunch of oak trees surrounded the school as well. Not to mention the school was absolutely huge. It was ridiculous how huge the school was, it had no reason for being that big.

Inside the school wasn't much different, everything seemed very pristine for it being a public school. Everything had a yellow-gold tint, the lockers black.

Leaf stared intently at Dawn's paperwork, showing all her classes and her locker. Leaf began giving Dawn a tour, trying to make small talk.

"So are you excited?" Leaf asked as she was showing Dawn the way to her third class.

"Uh, not really. From what I understand, highschool isn't exactly a dream come true."

Leaf laughed in agreement to her response.

"You're right about that, but it's not all bad. The friends make it tolerable."

Dawn didn't know that feeling. Friends? She never really had experience with other people that she actually enjoyed being around.

"Oh, and don't worry about the whole friends thing! I'll introduce you to mine. They're… interesting people. But once you get used to them, they're great!" Dawn didn't exactly like the sound of that, but there wasn't much of a choice in the matter.

They finished up the tour of the school rather quick and Leaf led her back to the front, handing her the paperwork with her schedule and locker information.

"We have the same class before lunch so we can walk together! Otherwise you've got classes with most of my friends so you should be okay as long as you meet up with them. May should be in two or three of your classes. There are only two classes that you don't have with anyone I know of off the top of my head."

"Thanks, you really didn't have to do this…" Dawn mumbled sheepishly, really unsure why Leaf was being so kind to her.

"Don't sweat it! You seem like a nice girl and it'll be nice having you around." Leaf gave Dawn a warm smile just as the bell to get to the first class rang.

"Alright, well good luck!" Leaf called before turning and walking briskly to her next class. Dawn sighed, following Leaf's lead and recalling where her class was during the tour.

Within a few minutes she found herself in the correct classroom. The teacher gave her basic instruction to sit next to a girl named May in the third row, second desk from the left. Following the instructions, Dawn found herself sitting next to a brunette girl, a lighter brunette than Leaf and Delia.

"Hi! I'm May, you must be Dawn. Leaf mentioned you." The girl's voice held a bit of a nasal quality, and she was almost as perky as Delia was this morning. "She didn't mention you were so pretty! Your eyes are stunning."

Dawn felt a bit of warmth climb to her cheeks at the compliment and she was unsure how to respond. "Um, yeah. I'm Dawn. Nice to meet you." May didn't even seem phased of who Dawn was.

When people were entering the classroom a few of them gave her second looks, but it seemed that a lot of them had no idea who she was. It surprised her, but then again she did look much different than she did when she was 13. She decided not to worry about it, her past would no doubt bring up issues at some point.

"Can I see your schedule?" May asked and Dawn obliged, handing the girl her schedule. "Sweet, we have this class and next class together! For the two classes after lunch I think you have them with Ash since they are senior classes, but that's just a guess." The shrill bell rang out and the class started.

Dawn tried to pay attention, but her focus was going in and out. The material was just so boring, she couldn't help but not pay attention. The class dragged on, and Dawn was snapped out of her zoned out state when the bell rang.

May shot up, grabbing Dawn's arm immediately. Before Dawn could protest, May linked arms with Dawn and walked her to the next class.

"I'll give you a quick run-down before lunch. There are two other people who sit with us, Drew and Gary." May's voice seemed to change when she said Drew, and Dawn could only assume that she had a crush on the boy.

"Drew has green hair, and he's a bit… How can I say this? Into himself." Dawn could picture the boy in her head and almost laughed. "Gary has brown hair, and he's super into Leaf, though she tries to deny it."

"Seems like an interesting bunch." Dawn responded, giving the brunette a small smile. "But, out of curiosity, what about Ash?" She wasn't sure why she was asking, but the boy interested her.

"Oh, him? He does his own thing most of the time, hanging out with his 'girlfriend' Misty and his friend group. He doesn't quite like to get involved with his sister. But why are you asking? Do you like him?" May teased her, wiggling her eyebrows and Dawn shook her head, fighting back a smile. Is this what it was like to have friends?

"No, no. And what do you mean by 'girlfriend'?" May had said the word in a certain way that made her believe that Misty was definitely not his girlfriend, or it was one-sided.

"Well Ash does his own thing, he's a bit of a playboy you see. That used to be Gary but after Gary fell for Leaf, Ash seemingly took his place. However, Misty is sort of his girlfriend. Even though it's more in her head than his, she deals with all the emotional turmoil she gets from him. I don't quite understand why, she's super nice. I guess love knows no bounds."

Dawn sort of expected the description she received from May. It's how Ash presented himself that made it quite obvious to her how he truly was as a person.

But there had to be something deeper to him. Something that was keeping her intrigued in the dark-haired boy. What was it?

May and Dawn entered the class with a minute to spare, and after figuring out seating, the class started without a hitch. Dawn felt much more intrigued in this class, as it was a history class. History interested her to no end.

The class passed faster than Dawn had hoped as the bell rang and disrupted her learning experience. She then proceeded on to her next class with a relative ease, remembering where it was.

That class passed as the others did, with nothing special occuring.

Lunch came faster than Dawn expected as the shrill bell for lunch rang throughout the school. In a similar fashion to May, Leaf linked arms with Dawn and practically raced towards the lunch room.

"Why… Are we running." Dawn was caught off guard by the sudden change of pace, literally.

"Because we need to get into the line early so we don't have to wait there forever!" Leaf seemed unphased by the change of pace at all, as though she was used to it.

They arrived at the lunch line quickly, and while they weren't at the front, they were certainly close. It took them just a few minutes to receive their lunches. Leaf led Dawn to the table that the group would sit at, and Dawn noticed that May was already sitting down.

May waved excitedly at the two girls, motioning for Dawn to sit next to her. Dawn obliged, with Leaf sitting on the opposite side, leaving Dawn in the middle.

Dawn dug into her food, not paying much attention to the brunettes having a fairly intense conversation around her. She didn't hear much besides the fact they were definitely talking about fashion or something of the sort.

"Ladies, ladies, no need to be bored. The party has arrived." A green-haired boy sat down directly across from May, and gave a look to Dawn. "You must be Dawn, Leaf mentioned you." He gave her his 'dazzling' smile.

"And you must be Drew, May mentioned you briefly." With the mention of May's name, Drew seemed to light up.

"Oh my darling May mentioned me? All good things I hope." With that, May and Leaf burst into laughter, with Dawn showing the confident boy a small smirk.

"Yeah, sure, let's go with that." Drew's expression faltered and he seemed hurt, pressing his hand against his chest.

"Oh my dear May spoke bad about me, however will I live?" The boy was caught off-guard by another boy, except this one was brunette.

"At least she isn't yelling at you all the time for no reason." The boy gave a pointed look in Leaf's direction and she blushed in response, shrugging nonchalantly.

"It's not for no reason, you're just dumb." Dawn smiled at the response and the boy sat down directly across from Leaf.

"Dawn, right? I'm Gary, but you probably knew that already." He seemed almost as full of himself as Drew did, however these boys did have a charm to them, she couldn't deny that.

Maybe having friends wouldn't be so bad after all.

But one question still remained clear in her mind.

Why were they being her friend?

Sure, Leaf had a reason since she was staying at her house and everything, but the others had no reason. For all they knew, she was still a psychotic murderer.

It just didn't make sense why they acted so normal toward her. Unless something came out in the newspapers that she never heard about, they should be at least slightly concerned by her presence.

Dawn let out a loud sigh, louder than she was intending, and decided to let the matter go. She'd ask Leaf when they arrived home.

"What was the sigh for?" May inquired, her mouth full of food. Dawn shook her head in response to the girl.

"Nothing." Was her one-worded response before she continued to shove food into her face.

The group was full of witty banter that Dawn didn't feel left out of, she just felt unnatural with. She found her eyes wandering the cafeteria until they finally found another familiar face.

Ash.

He was sitting at a table with a bunch of other guys, and a girl with bright orange hair clung to his arm. She was probably Misty.

"Pretty." Dawn thought, surprised how Ash could nab such a cute girl.

Then her luminous blue eyes met his chocolate ones.

Immediately feeling embarrassed, Dawn turned back to the group and tuned into the conversation.

"I deserved an A on that project!" Drew was arguing with Leaf about some project, Dawn presumed. What project he deserved an A on, she would never know. Because someone decided to make her first day at school a whole lot harder than it needed to be.

"So, who let the crazy chick into the school?" A nasally voice sneered, and the group looked up to see a girl with strange dark hair looking down at them.

"Giselle, go away." Leaf growled at the girl, almost taking a mother-bear position to protect Dawn.

"Why should I? The whole school knows that she's insane. You guys are basically insane for hanging out with her." Giselle started laughing and so did the posse behind her that Dawn just noticed.

"But don't worry sweetie, if you stay out of my way then I'll stay out of yours. Don't blame me if I make a few jabs about your insanity here or there, it's all in pure fun!" Giselle's face was one of pure disdain, and she walked away from the group, her heels clacking against the marble floor.

Dawn didn't even realize the cafeteria had gone, for the most part, silent.

"Everyone, go back to your normally schedule activities!" Drew's voice boomed throughout the cafeteria, and for the most part people followed his orders. The noise level in the room raised once again to the steady chatter.

Dawn felt eyes burning into her head and she barely glanced over, noticing Ash was staring at her. He seemed conflicted, but why?

"Dawn, don't listen to her. It's almost her job to make everyone's life a living hell." Leaf tried to comfort the girl, patting her on the shoulder but Dawn shook her off.

"She's not wrong though, I am mentally insane." Dawn muttered back, trying to hide how upset she was about the situation.

While she wasn't that upset, she was just hoping her first day would be okay and she wouldn't have to worry about this sort of stuff. Of course, it wasn't the case. She couldn't be that lucky.

"Dawn no, you're not-" May was cut off by Dawn's voice, raising in pitch slightly, but the urgency was there.

"You guys can't pretend to know me. You don't know a thing about me. You've known me for less than a day and you're trying to act all buddy-buddy with someone who's insane. I'm probably just your charity case." Dawn pushed herself away from the table.

"Dawn no-" Leaf tried to retort but Dawn just shook her head.

"Just leave me alone. Please." Dawn walked away from the table without once looking back.

She didn't know why she snapped at them, it wasn't their fault. They were just trying to help. But here she went again, pushing away anyone who tried to help her. Nothing would ever change, would it?

Deciding that lunch was almost over anyways, she would go to her next class. It was a chemistry class, which she figured would be interesting. Juniors typically took physics, but she already passed physics with flying colors so they shoved her into chemistry.

She found the class before the hallway passing bell rang, so she just walked inside and sat down in one of the desks near the front so she could talk to the teacher to figure out where her assigned seat would be.

But before the teacher entered, someone else made a pretty surprising appearance.

"Hey there." Ash said, taking a seat in the desk next to the blunette. "You doing okay? Giselle was pretty rude back there."

Dawn responded to his remark with a shrug. "It's not like she was wrong, she was just a bit rude with her presentation of the information."

"Yeah, but she still didn't need to do it." There was an awkward silence between the two before Ash filled it. "Look, don't take out your frustration on the group. They honestly are just a group of nice people who look past people's past and try to see them at face-value. And as for me, I'm… sorry about this morning."

Everything hit Dawn at once and this seemed very uncharacteristic of Ash. Unless he put up a front before for everyone? She could relate if that was the truth.

"Yeah, I know. And apology accepted, I understand why you acted the way you did." She gave him a smile, albeit a small one but still a smile. He gave a pretty hearty grin to her, and that was when Dawn realized.

Did they both just open up to each other?

Her expression shut, closing herself off once again. She couldn't get close to him of all people. She was only here until she turned 18, and then she was out. She just needed someone to watch over and he just happened to be Delia's son.

Ash seemed to noticed the shift and shut himself off as well.

What was he doing? Why was he opening up to a girl he barely knew but he could barely even open up to his sibling without extreme effort?

What was so different about this girl?

The teacher entered the classroom soon after, and Dawn focused her attention on the short bald man, figuring out her seat assignment. The man decided to place her just where she was sitting, since coincidentally no one was sitting there during the class.

People slowly filtered into the classroom and the bell rang before Dawn knew it.

"Alright class! As you know, new quarter, new lab groups!" Half of the class groaned while the other half smiled in quiet victory, though Dawn was left out of this equation as she had no idea what was going on.

"Alright, Barry with Daisy, Lucas with Paul, Dawn with Ash…" After her name was called, Dawn zoned out to the rest of the names. Wasn't this just convenient?

Ash, who happened to sit behind and to the left of her, just raised his eyebrows in response to her glance.

Oh well, not like it could be helped.

"Alright, we will be starting a project with your lab partner related to the unit we're still in, equilibrium!" Everyone, including Dawn, groaned at response to this.

Dawn finished the equilibrium unit in her textbook, so this would be a breeze. However, she hated group projects. She preferred to be responsible for her own grade.

"You will be given a nonlethal reaction, and before or after school you must come in and record yourselves doing the reaction, as well as showing shifting in the reaction by adding or removing a part of it." The class groaned again. "Then, you must write a lab report."

The teacher passed out a reaction to one person from each group, and Dawn received the paper for her group.

It was the reaction for fire. Easy enough.

"I will have sign-ups for claims on the chemistry room before and after school on certain days tomorrow, for now I'll let you guys think on it as we start the next part of equilibrium, K."

Dawn tuned the professor out, staring at a piece of art on the wall for no reason at all but to zone out.

The bell rang and Dawn left the class almost immediately, moving to her next class at a brisk place. This was the class she was most excited for all day. Music theory 2.

Music had become a vital part of her life during her time in the mental institution. For many, like her, it was an escape from the torture that she endured in that hell. She learned a lot about music, and all she wanted was to hold a guitar in her dainty hands. Instruments weren't allowed, so she had never played an instrument. But she could listen and she could learn.

Musical instruments were in cases all along the walls, and a small square of 12 desks in a 4x3 fashion rested in the middle of the room. It was a small class, that much Dawn could tell.

May was probably wrong, there was no way Ash of all people would be in this class. Especially since it wasn't a required one.

People filtered in and they were all people who had a unique look to them. A hipster look, they seemed as though they wanted to stick out.

A lot of the people eyed Dawn warily as they walked in, sitting down in their normal spots. Dawn just continued standing, waiting for the teacher to walk in.

Soon enough, Ash did indeed enter and shattered Dawn's expectations once again. She should know better than to judge a book by it's cover, but he was so obvious to read. Or at least, that's what she thought.

The teacher walked into the room, and she had on a gaudy black coat. Her hair was long, and blonde, and she genuinely looked more like she belonged on a broadway than a music classroom.

"Oh, Dawn right? You can go ahead and sit in the seat farthest back to my left!" The lady was cheery to say the least, but Dawn didn't blame her. It was the last class of the day after all. Dawn followed her instructions and sat down.

To her right sat a girl with pink hair that looked as though her hair were two drills, and in front of her sat a girl with red hair cut pixie-like.

The shrill bell rang and almost at the same pitch as the bell, the teacher started on.

"Good afternoon guys! You guys should all know me, I'm Cynthia. Today we're just gonna watch a documentary on musical creators just to get back into everything, tomorrow we'll start with the guitar!"

Wait, did Dawn hear that right? They were going to play guitar tomorrow?

Oh this class couldn't get any better.

The documentary was overwhelmingly boring. Why couldn't they just do something involved with music instead of watching a movie on old dead guys?

The class passed by slowly, and as soon as the bell rang Dawn planned on making a mad dash for it until she heard a familiar boy clear his throat.

She turned around and noticed he was staring at her, taking the time to note that he was a whole head taller than her.

"Did you forget I'm your ride?" He asked the blunette. His voice was gruff, gruffer than Dawn previously realized.

"Oh, yeah." Dawn mumbled, genuinely forgetting he had to take her home. He walked in front of her and she followed after him. They met up with Leaf along the way, and Leaf gave an apologetic smile to Dawn and held her hand out to the girl as they walked.

Dawn wasn't sure if she wanted a low high-five or just to hold her hand to know it's okay. Letting out a low, quiet sigh, Dawn grabbed the girls hand and gave her a forgiving smile in return.

"Yay!" Leaf exclaimed before hugging Dawn immediately, stopping Dawn in her tracks and Ash turned around to see the commotion.

To say Dawn was surprised was an understatement, but she hesitantly reached behind the girl and patted her back comfortingly.

"Leaf let go, you're making her uncomfortable with your touchy-feely-ness. You're almost worse than May I swear." Leaf let go, muttered a quick sorry to Dawn and gave Ash a bright smile.

"You're not a girl, you don't understand. Now go, I have plans tonight and I would like to get home to be able to prepare."

Ash rolled his eyes, continuing to lead his way to the car until they ran into a certain orange-headed girl.

"Ash!" The girl squealed, running up and giving him a hug. Ash seemed bothered by the hug, but still hugged her back. "And you must be Dawn! Sorry about Giselle earlier today, I'm sure you're an amazing girl." Misty gave Dawn a big toothy smile and Dawn couldn't help but feel bad for the girl as she was dating Ash.

"Thanks." Dawn gave her a quick smile before Leaf pushed Ash towards the car, making him unlock it.

They all got in and Ash backed out as Misty waved goodbye.

"She's too good for you." Leaf muttered to him as he turned out of the parking lot.

"I know."

They arrived at home pretty quickly and Leaf jumped out of the car. "Hey Dawn, meet me in my room in like three minutes!" Rushing off before Dawn could ask, Dawn sighed and entered the house after her, with Ash being the last one and he closed the door behind them.

"Hey Dawn, do you want to stay after school tomorrow and do the reaction? It's easy, right?"

"Uhm yeah, that works for me." Dawn responded, kicking her shoes off at the door. Of course, while doing this she managed to trip over herself.

Bracing for her fall, she closed her eyes, but the pain never came. Opening her eyes, she saw Ash's face just inches from hers.

Arceus, it's like they were in a romance novel. What are the chances of every coincidence possible to get her close to him, happened all in one day?

"U-uhm…" Dawn muttered, the heat rising to her cheeks by the mere proximity of the brown-eyed boy.

"Y-you okay?" Ash's voice was husky, and Dawn noted that his breath smelled faintly of oranges.

"Yeah… You can let go of me now though." Ash's face reddened at her words, immediately helping her out of the leaning position she was in.

"Thanks." She raced off upstairs, trying to get out of that awkward conversation.

What was that? And why did she blush when she was so close to him? He was just a guy she was living with.

Trying to rub the blush out of her cheeks, she made her way to Leaf's room and walked in.

"There you are! Why did you take so long? And why are you blushing?" She dragged out blushing in a suggestive manner and wagged her eyebrows. "Did something happen between you and my darling big brother?" There was a smirk on her face and Dawn's blushing started up all over again.

"N-no, don't worry about it. Anyways, what did you call me here for?"

Leaf looked at the blunette in disbelief, but decided to put it aside for now.

"We're going to a party on Friday!" Leaf smiled brightly at the girl, excitement running through her.

"Uh, no. You're going to a party on Friday." Dawn corrected her.

All she heard about parties were that they were a bad time and that she shouldn't go. She should just focus on her studies and getting out of here as soon as possible, she had no time for parties.

"But Daaaaaaaaawn." Her voice sounded like a child's whining for some more candy from the checkout lane. "I can't go there alone, you have to come with me!"

"You can always just not go." Dawn pointed out to the brunette.

"No, I promised Gary I would go! Come on, do this one thing for me. Then I'll owe you one."

Dawn really, really didn't want to go. But she gave a sigh of defeat and the brunette smiled, giving the blunette the second hug within an hour.

"Thank you so much!" Leaf seemed surprisingly happy over just a small thing, so Dawn decided that maybe it wasn't such a bad decision.

Dawn rested on the couch in the living room around 8 at night, watching some mindless television before she would sleep for the night. Some game show was on.

Dawn used this time to go through everything she had learned throughout the day.

Leaf and May are pretty nice girls, Leaf is interested in Gary and May in Drew.

They're all friends with her because of unknown reasons, but they aren't faking their interest in her as a friend.

Ash puts up a front as a player and an asshole, but most of her interactions with him have been pretty alright.

Dawn blushed at the thought of the scene from earlier, with her in his arms. That was royally awkward to say the least.

Ash is in a sort-of relationship with Misty, who seems like a nice girl.

Giselle is nowhere near that nice, and seems to be one of the few people who had a problem with her.

Ash is her lab partner, and they would work on a project after school tomorrow.

She had to admit, she didn't mind Ash as much as she thought she would. He seemed to be struggling with his own identity, which she could relate to. She felt herself opening up ever so slightly to people who had no idea about her, but she didn't care. She was happy for the first time in a long time, and that said a lot.

Hopefully it would continue on.

But Ash… They connected earlier today on a level that neither of them understood. They both opened up to each other and she knew that. But why?

Before Dawn could answer her own thoughts, she felt her drifting off into an involuntary slumber on the couch.

Ash made his way down the stairs just a few hours later, looking for a late night snack before hitting the sack for the night. On his way to the kitchen, he noticed that the T.V. was playing in the dark living room, uncharacteristic for everyone in this house. No one in this house watched the T.V. except for his mom, and she wasn't home yet since she texted him they had her working until 11 P.M.

Opening the glass doors to the living room, he noticed a sleeping blunette on the couch, slumped over.

Ash felt a small smile creep onto his face as he looked at the girl in a dead sleep.

She's cute.

The thought entered his mind before he could stop it and he immediately shook it out. She had been here for barely a day, she was "technically" insane, even though he knew that to not be true. Everyone knew that not to be true. They couldn't tell her why, of course, but hopefully someday.

Either way, he had no right to have those thoughts about her. Not to mention she was just staying in his house because she had nowhere else to go.

Pushing the thoughts out of his head, he tried to occupy himself with doing something else.

He grabbed a blanket from the chair in the corner of the room and he brought it to Dawn, laying it on top of her. She stirred for a second before going limp once again in a deep sleep.

Turning the television off, he felt as though leaving her in the dark would send her in a panic if she woke up before the sun rose, he knew that he wouldn't like to wake up in a dark room with no recollection of where he was. He doubted that she fell asleep in that awkward of a position consciously.

He went to the farthest corner of the room and turned on the yellow lamp that rested on the end table. Turning back to the girl, he made sure she was still sleeping soundly before exiting the living room, and closing the glass doors behind him.

So it's been about 4 years of no updates, and I'm really sorry about that! I highly doubt this super long chapter will make up for it, but maybe? I honestly didn't plan for this chapter to be so long, but I couldn't find any good spots to break off, and even this spot isn't that great. I originally planned for this chapter to be about 5,000 words, but I went 2,000 over, which I guess isn't a bad thing.

It might take me a little bit to update this story again since I need to figure out the story, and I really don't like the way this was originally laid out. However, because I am lazy, I am going to take it head-on and make it my own. However, reviews really help me get motivated, and I respond to each review!

I haven't exactly edited this chapter because I just wanted to get it out, so there may be a few mistakes here and there, but I hope you forgive me for that.

R + R! Thanks you guys!