Surprise! I'm back!

I know, I didn't expect to continue writing this, either. However, I realized that there were a lot of good ideas in my outline, ideas that I really wanted to come to fruition. Therefore, it only made sense to keep writing this, because the best way to overcome writer's block, in my opinion, is to plow right through it.

Thank you to everyone who wished me well for my 18th birthday, and let's now get this show on the road!

Ash slowly woke up, blinking at the sunlight that was streaming into his bedroom. He held up a hand in order to cover his eyes, because it was just so bright.

The initial annoyance, however, was replaced by confusion.

He wasn't confused about the sun's rays; he, of course, knew everything about it. He was thinking about something completely different.

Ash had been dreaming that he was on the dance floor, and Serena had rejected him...but why? Was there anything in particular that she didn't find...desirable in him?

He shook his head. He didn't want to believe that Serena could be so shallow. She was a lot of things, from what he could tell, but she wasn't that. She was not a stereotypical rich girl, at least not in that regard.

Looking at his bedside table, he decided that he might as well get up. Coyopa was remaining in his Pokeball for now, and that was for the best. Right now, he wanted some time to think on his own; it was nothing against the Pikachu.

As he showered and brushed his teeth, Ash continued to contemplate his dream. Perhaps it meant nothing, perhaps it meant everything in the whole world. Either way, he couldn't keep worrying about it. If it was going to happen, it was going to happen.

I have more pressing matters to worry about, Ash told himself. Homework, for one.

He reminded himself that he had not done all of the homework he had been assigned last night, and he resolved that he was going to get some done this morning. After all, he cared about getting good grades. While he didn't know precisely what job he wanted, he knew that the grades he got in college mattered.

Ash got dressed and walked into the kitchen, where Serena was doing the crossword in the newspaper.

"Good morning, Ash" she said as the boy walked in.

"Morning, Serena" Ash replied. "What's up?"
"Not much" Serena said in response. She was eating a bagel as she was doing the crossword, and a couple of crumbs were getting on the newspaper. Ash decided not to mention that.

The fact that she was writing down letters reminded the boy that he really should be working on his homework. Gritting his teeth, he walked over to his backpack and took out his assignment.

"You're doing homework?" Serena asked him.

"I kind of have to" he replied. "I didn't do all of it last night".

"Oh, yeah. I remember now".

Ash gritted his teeth again and began working on his Zexonyte and Wyomium essay again. This wasn't a fun job, because he was still drawing a complete blank on what to write.

At some point, Serena handed him a bagel to munch on, and Ash did so. He still, after all, needed to eat, even if he was going to be yelled at so much that he died of a heart attack.

It tasted like cardboard.

Once Ash had spent half an hour working on his essay, which he felt he was doing a very poor job at, Serena said, "Okay, Ash. Let's get going; we still have to pick up Lucas and Dawn".

Reluctantly, Ash looked up at Serena. She was already carrying her backpack, sending the signal that she was ready to go. As he looked around the room, he saw that Sam, Bella, Patrick, and Corinne were also eating at a nearby table. He didn't know why he hadn't noticed them having a conversation together, but that might have simply been due to the fact that he'd been focusing on the work.

I'm going to get an F on my paper, Ash thought, D at best. But I have to have something to turn in, or else I might get a detention. And I really don't want that!

Indeed, he didn't. He was pretty sure that, in detention, you weren't allowed to work on any of your homework; you just had to sit there and wait for it to be over. At least, that was how it had been at his high school.

He followed Serena to her car. This time, however, she said something that he hadn't been expecting.

"I want you to drive today" she said.

Ash's eyes widened. "You want me to drive?"

She nodded. "I figure that it'll be good practice for you. After all, you do want your license eventually, do you not?"

"Yes", Ash replied, "although I don't know if I feel comfortable on all of these winding roads".

"You'll be fine" Serena replied. "Just be careful, and I'll tell you where to go so that it's less crowded. You do have your permit, right?"

Ash nodded. He always kept his Class D learner's permit in a wallet in his backpack; that way, he would never lose it. That method had served him well thus far, and he saw no reason for it to fail in the future.

"All right, then. Back us out".

Ash felt very nervous driving in this unfamiliar place. In Twinleaf Town, he'd gotten instruction, both from his parents and from a professional driver, but he didn't feel quite as confident being in the car with Serena, perhaps because he didn't know her quite as well.

I know her well enough, he told himself. At one point, I didn't know my driving instructor well, either.

Yes...that was a good way to comfort himself. Taking one look at Serena, he knew that she was going to hold firm to this. No matter what, she was going to make him drive to pick up Lucas and Dawn.

Curse you, Serena, he thought as he got into the driver's seat. As he started the car, he thought about how he'd already been stressed out, very much so, by the massive mountain of work he had. Being forced to drive to the university wasn't going to help matters.

On the other hand...he knew that he could use the practice. He did, after all, want to get his license someday. He might as well go along with Serena's wishes.

After starting the engine, he allowed the blonde girl to tell him how to back out of the driveway. That took a while, mainly because Ash was a very tentative driver, always hesitant to go too fast. Eventually, however, they were on the road, and he was going twenty-five miles an hour.

Even though he'd been driven there before, Ash didn't have the slightest idea on how to get to Lucas's house. Serena had to guide him, telling him which lane to be in in order to turn in the right direction.

Was making me drive really necessary?, he wondered as he was driving down a long, narrow road. What did it accomplish, really?

Eventually, they got to the house that Ash knew belonged to Lucas. The boy in the beret was already waiting on the front steps, head in his hands. He looked exhausted; perhaps he hadn't gotten too much sleep the night before.

"Morning" Serena said to Lucas.

At the sight of her, the boy outside the car smiled. "Hey. Ash, you're driving!"

"Yeah" Ash replied. "I am".

"I insisted that he did it. He has his learner's permit, and he needs the practice. You're fine with that, right?"

"I am" Lucas said. "I don't even have my permit myself; I haven't even gone to a parking lot or anything like that. I've never been behind the wheel even once".

"Well, there's a first time for everything" Ash joked. "Maybe you can drive us on the way back".

Lucas snorted. "Fat chance of that".

Serena smiled. "All right. Let's pick up Dawn, and then head to GPU. Did you do all your homework last night, Lucas?"

The way Serena said that, she made it sound like Lucas was her ten-year-old son, rather than a nineteen-year-old fellow college student. Ash knew she was just teasing, though, and it was quite funny to see the cheeks of the other boy turn red.

"No" Lucas replied. "I'm 117 words short on my Zexonyte essay".

"Join the club" Ash said. "That's exactly what I didn't finish, too".

"Well", the boy in the beret said, "we'll probably be in detention together, then. At least there's the together part".

Ash chuckled. "Way to look on the bright side, Lucas".

The other boy smiled. "Thanks. Now let's go pick up Dawn. I don't want to be late".

Ash drove them to Dawn's house, still following instructions from Serena. Since Lucas was sitting in the back, it was harder for him to see where they were going, and he was thus of far less help.

Eventually, they did make it to her house. They had to honk the horn before Dawn came out, also looking tired, but not to the same extent that her boyfriend did.

"Ash is driving?" she asked, sounding very surprised indeed. Of course, that was probably because she was indeed surprised.

"Yes, I am" the aforementioned boy responded. "Serena made me".

"That I did" the blonde girl said. "Just figured he could use a little more practice".

The rest of the trip to the university passed mostly incident-free. Ash was still scared every time he had to stop, but that was mainly due to the general anxiety he had always had with regards to driving.

It wasn't long until they entered the gates of the university, and then Serena told him where to park. Ash did so, albeit slowly, and they were a couple of minutes later to the school than they had been yesterday.

"We should probably hurry up to our classes" Dawn said. "Are we meeting back here at 3:03 again?"

"Sounds like a good idea to me" her boyfriend replied. "Serena? Ash? You guys cool with that?"

After both of them nodded, Lucas and Dawn left to head to their classes, and Ash was standing alone with Serena.

Is now my chance?, he wondered. Is now the time that I confess to Serena that I am attracted to her?

Somehow, he didn't think that would be a good idea. He decided he was going to wait until another opportunity struck. But would it, even?

Ash stood at his locker, looking over his schedule for the day. Some of the subjects on the list were those he was already dreading, and seeing them written down didn't make him any more eager to attend said lessons.

8:00 AM - Arrival

8:15 AM - Creative Writing

9:15 AM - Mathematics

10:15 AM - Pokemon Biology

11:15 AM - Physical Education

12:15 PM - Lunch

1:00 PM - Home Economics

2:00 PM - Ancient History of Sinnoh

3:00 PM - Dismissal

As he looked at his schedule at large, he saw that his last lesson on one day would be the first on the next day. Everything else would be in the same order as usual, just at different times.

First up is Creative Writing, Ash thought. Hopefully it goes well, because, if it doesn't...well, at least it's going to be fairly easy. Maybe, under the guise of doing writing for the class, I can get some work done on the Zexonyte essay.

Indeed, once he was in the class, that was what he tried to do. As the teacher, Mr. Keating, looked around the room, Ash switched his Google Doc from the one on which he had been writing his creative piece to the one in which he was working on the essay. He'd take time to sneak in five or ten words here or there, when Mr. Keating wasn't looking.

By the time the class was over, he'd finished his essay. The thing was barely coherent, and, were he the professor, he would have given it a D, or maybe a C at best. Even so, it was better to have something to turn in as opposed to nothing at all.

Even though he hadn't done too much of what Mr. Keating would have wanted him to do, Ash walked out of class still considering it a victory. That was one less thing he had to worry about, although his joy with regards to the Zexonyte and Wyomium essay was short-lived.

Fuck. I still have a thousand words for Mr. Lucas, on what he told me about ancient history of Sinnoh.

Now, he was well and truly snookered. He couldn't think of any time at all that he could use to work on that essay. And the stakes were very high indeed - the history teacher was most likely a very strict man, from what he had seen of him, and it wasn't likely that he'd simply let Ash off the hook.

If I don't turn it in, I'll probably get detention. If I get detention, how is Serena going to know that? I guess Dawn will, though.

His mind was already going a mile a minute before he arrived at Mathematics. Professor Vinaka was standing in front of the class, clearly looking forward to receiving homework from the students.

I didn't do it, Ash thought. At least, I didn't finish it. She's not going to be happy with me...but is she going to put me in detention?

As the Lucario professor passed by, Ash held out his worksheet, and Professor Vinaka took it without a word. At first, Ash was relieved. That probably meant that Vinaka wasn't going to give him detention after all.

All right. Let's hope that I don't get in trouble with Mr. Lucas, then.

But then he realized that he was likely to get a bad grade on the assignment, so he wasn't quite as happy.

For the rest of the lesson, Ash made sure to focus, and to hang on to every single word Professor Vinaka was saying. He knew that, if he was caught staring off into space, or otherwise not paying attention, he might get in trouble, and that was something he owed to Serena not to do.

Eventually, they were dismissed from the class, and Ash moved on to the next one, which was Pokemon Biology. The entire time, he was wondering if he might get a C instead of a D on his paper, but he figured that it was unlikely.

Even so, it was better than not having a paper to turn in at all. Unfortunately, that led him to begin thinking about Ancient History of Sinnoh, something that he was very much dreading...