“Fancy seeing you here, May. I thought only real coordinators entered this contest, but I guess I was wrong.” May clenched her teeth. She already knew who it was without turning around.
“Drew.” She stated. It wasn’t exactly a friendly greeting, but neither was his. She looked up and saw him a few feet away from her, leaning on a wall. He flipped his hair with one hand, the other holding a bright red rose. He threw it at May, and she caught it easily.
“I guess you’re in this pokemon contest also?” She asked.
“What do you think, genius?” Drew said, smirking. May glared daggers at him, but he seemed unfazed by it. I’m not losing to him again. May thought. She walked away without another word, clenching her rose. Drew just watched her go, but his smirk was gone. He pushed himself off of the wall and walked in the opposite direction.
“Hey, May! Over here!” Max called. Brock had made lunch, and Ash and Max were already eating.
“Hey guys!” May said, sitting down next to Max. Brock brought a bowl of soup for her.
“You register yet?” Ash asked.
“Yeah! I found Harley and Drew.” She said, rather dully.
“Looks like you’ve got some competition.” Brock said, looking at all the coordinators training.
“I’ll be ready, for sure!” May said, her voice full of determination. After she finished eating, she released Skitty from her ball. “Hey, Skitty! Are you ready to win?” May said to her pokemon. Skitty meowed excitedly and nodded her head. “All right! Let’s go!” May said. She ran into the forest to get some privacy, and Skitty followed close behind.
“Be back before sunset, May!” Brock yelled for her to hear. May waved to them telling them she heard, and continued on her way. She eventually found a clearing that was a good practicing spot.
“All right, Skitty. Let’s see what you can do.” May took out four small balls from her bag and threw them at Skitty. Skitty caught them easily and started to juggle them with her tail. “Let’s try something new, Skitty. Use blizzard on the balls!” May commanded. Skitty released a blizzard from her mouth and froze the balls in midair. When they came back down, the ice shattered into many pieces. “Now use double-slap, Skitty!” Skitty whacked all of the ice shards, making even smaller pieces fly into the air, and they sparkled on the way down. “Way to go, Skitty!” She said, petting the pink cat. Skitty wagged her tail, saw it, and chased it until she fell. May giggled and picked her up. She didn’t know someone was watching her from the protection of the trees…

Drew watched May with interest. ‘She’s gotten a lot better’. He thought. He wanted to tell her what he thought, but somehow he just couldn’t. ‘Why do I do that to her?’ He pondered. He didn’t usually act like that but something was different about May. ‘I guess I just don’t want her to know how I feel’. Wait a second. How does he feel? He acted like a jerk to her… because he was afraid of May’s reaction. ‘What reaction am I afraid of?’ He usually didn’t feel like this about other girls. ‘But May isn’t just another girl’. He was afraid of rejection. That was it. He couldn’t handle the rejection, so he acted like a jerk to make sure May wouldn’t have any feelings for him, so his problem would just go away, knowing May didn’t like him. ‘But it didn’t, did it?’ It only got worse. The more he saw her, the more he wanted to tell her how he felt. But now that he made sure May hated him, there wasn’t much of a chance now. ‘You blew it, airhead.’
He looked up to see that May left already. He was about to turn around when he heard a familiar voice.
“Well, well. If it isn’t Drew.” Drew turned around at the voice and saw Harley. Drew thought for a second and remembered the guy who made May believe he was a friend, but ended up just taking advantage of her. Drew glared at Harley, but Harley seemed to ignore it.
“What are you doing here? Taking advantage of May again?” Drew said, with a hint of anger in his voice.
“Don’t worry, Drew. I’m not hurting your girlfriend.” Harley said, accenting ‘girlfriend’, smirking.
“She’s not my girlfriend.” Drew said threateningly quiet.
“Right. Even though that’s what you want.” Harley challenged. Drew glared at Harley, but nothing could stop the hint of red rise in his cheeks. It was barely there, but Harley saw it and smirked.
“It is what you want. Aw, poor Drew can’t tell May his feelings.” Harley said in a voice that sounded like a pouting kid, patting Drew on his head. Drew clenched his teeth and took a step back to avoid the patting.
“It’s not that I can’t. I just don’t want to!” Oops. At that, Harley grinned evilly.
“Well, in either case, you love her.” He said. Drew turned quickly so Harley wouldn’t see the darker shade of red on Drew’s face. He usually kept his cool in any situation. What made this so different? He thought during the long pause. Harley took the silence as a ‘yes’. “You don’t want to, huh? Well, care to share with me why you don’t want to?” Harley said, an evil smile on his face.
“No.” Drew said, turning to leave. He finally gained control and walked away. Harley frowned at this, but it didn’t stop him from trying to toy with Drew, too.
“I’ll bet you couldn’t tell her even if you tried. You’re afraid.” Harley said, the evil grin returning.
“Just what makes you say that?” Drew said, anger evident in his voice as he stopped walking. Drew wasn’t afraid of anything. You just admitted two minutes ago you were afraid of rejection. Drew’s conscience wasn’t helping.
“Well, if you weren’t afraid, you would’ve told May by now.” Harley said in a fake innocent voice. “I’ll bet you won’t tell her by the end of this contest, even if your life depended on it.” Drew had had enough. He just started walking away. “Hey!” Harley yelled, but Drew kept on walking. Drew smirked to himself as he thought of Harley’s frustrated face. Harley felt like he’d been overpowering Drew for too long to have Drew overpower him. Suddenly, and idea sprang into Harley’s mind. “I can’t wait until everyone in the City hears about this.” He said, making sure Drew heard. Drew froze. Everyone… His fans, his rivals… May…