(Ash's pov)

After a very....interesting start to the morning, Serena and I had made our way to the dorm lounge and we were having breakfast. We had just missed Clemont and Sawyer, they were headed out the door when we got there. Serena and I were both eating a muffin. Her muffin was strawberry and mine was banana with chocolate chips.

We had been eating for a good five minutes now, but neither of us had said a word. Serena refused to make eye contact with me, which I thought to be very strange. I mean, yeah she over reacted a bit this morning. It was just chilli after all.

Wait...

I went all day with chilli on my forehead of all places!? Even into the head mistress's office!?

Ah man, now I'm never going to hear the end of it! My thought was cut off when I saw Serena looking over at another girl who was sitting by herself. She had long dark blue hair and looked pretty lonely.

"Who's that Serena? I don't think I've ever seen her before." I said.

"Me neither, I think I'll invite her over. Would that be okay?" She replied.

"Yeah, why wouldn't it be." I said.

Serena smiled and walked over to the girl.

"Hi there, my name's Serena! What's your name?" Serena said happily.

The girl turned to face Serena, and when she did her eyes lit up and her quietness instantly faded.

The girl quickly stood up.

"Omigosh omigosh omigosh!!! You're Princess Serena!? I'm Dawn, Dawn Berlitz, it's such an honor to meet you!" The girl said, her voice filled with exitement.

Serena giggled and smiled. While I on the other hand thought 'Great here ee go again.'

"It's nice to meet you too Dawn. We saw you sitting alone over here, so my friend and I were wondering if you wanted to come and eat with us. What do you say?" Serena said.

Dawn looked like she was about to faint, but she quickly regained at least some composure.

"Y-yes, I'd love to! Thank you so much!" Said Dawn.

After a few seconds of Dawn fan-girling over meeting Serena, the two girls made their way over to our table.

"Dawn, this is my friend Ash." Serena said.

"Nice to meet you Ash!" Dawn said happily while extending her hand.

"Yeah, nice to meet you too!" I said as I shook her hand.

For the next 15 minutes or so, the three of us chatted about ourselves.

Stuff like where we came from, what we were interested in, typical stuff.

Dawn was from the Sinnoh region, and she was in the same grade as us. She was the daughter of a very powerful business man and she said she had a brother that also went to school here, but didn't like him very much. We tried to ask her more, but she completely dodged the topic.

Another 5 minutes of small talk passed before we turned and looked up at the clock and noticed the time.

"Oh no, we should probably be heading out! We're going to be late if we wait any longer." Serena said.

"Geez, you're right. Hey Dawn, you wanna walk to school with us?" I asked.

Dawn smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, you bet! Let's get going!" Dawn said.

So we threw away our trash from breakfast and head on to school. Bianca was sweeping the walk way and she waved good morning to us. We returned the gesture. As we walked Serena and Dawn were walking a few feet ahead of me. I could tell that Serena was enjoying the opportunity to have some girl talk.

As we continued walking, a thought came to mind.

'Ya know, I still haven't found out who that Scarlet girl is. I'll check the chat room after school to see if she's on.' I thought to myself.

As we approached the school we saw a group of guys hanging out by the entrance. I noticed that Dawn began looking very uncomfortable. Could one of those guys be her brother?

"Hey guys, I think I'm gonna go in on the other side. I'll see you in gym." Dawn said quickly.

"Hey wait a sec-" Serena started to say before being cut off by a familiar voice.

"Dawn, what the heck are you doing? Why are you hanging out with these losers?" Said the voice.

Serena and I knew immediately who it was. It was Paul. We turned and saw him approaching us.

"Um, hey big brother..." Dawn said lowly.

Paul didn't look to happy, which wasn't a surprise, but this was different. He looked at us, gave us a quick glare, and turnedhis gaze back to Dawn.

"You know, you shouldn't be hanging out with these two, come on let's go." Paul said as he grabbed Dawn by the wrist.

"Ouch Paul, that hurts!" Dawn said.

I was getting mad, but I could tell Serena was far madder than I was.

She placed her hands on her hips and scowled at Paul.

"Hey! Knock it off you big bully!" Serena said angrily.

Paul turned around and scoffed.

"Oh look, the princess is trying to act all tough. What are you gonna do about it, huh?" Paul said mockingly.

Serena was fuming at this point. She took a step forward, but I put my hand on her shoulder. I couldn't believe it, I of all people was stopping Serena of all people from getting into a fight.

"What are you doing Ash!?" She said.

"Serena, believe me I am mad about this too, but violence will not solve anything here." I said, my voice filled with traces of frustration at the situation.

Paul scoffed again.

"What, is the little boy afaid of getting his butt kicked?" Paul said.

I'm really sick of his attitude.

"That sure is big talk coming from a guy with purple hair." I shot back.

"Oooooooooohhh!!!" Sounded the group guys behind us.

Serena and Dawn also cracked up.

Ooooh he was mad. He let go of Dawns hand and walked over to punch me, but luckily I was saved.

"And just what do you think you're doing young man." Said professor Rowen.

Paul stopped and turned around slowly to see professor Rowen towering over him. Professor Rowen may have been old, but he was very tall and intimidating.

"N-nothing Sir!" Paul said, his voice shaking.

Rowen narrowed his eyes.

"That's what I thought, now get to class, you're going to be late." Rowen said as he walked away.

Paul quickly followed him, leaving Dawn, Serena, and I left thanking great merciful God for professor Rowen. Serena stepped over to Dawn.

"Hey are you alright?" She asked.

"Yeah I'm fine, sorry about that you guys." Dawn replied.

"It's no problem, now I see why you didn't want to talk about him." Serena said.

Dawn looked at the ground.

"He wasn't always like this, he used to be so nice. But, one day he just changed. I think it must have been my father's doing." Dawn said.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Serena said sympatheticly.

"It's alright, anyway we should really be getting to class. I'll see you guys later." Dawn said as she walked away.

"How sad, I feel so bad for her." Serena said.

"Yeah, that must be pretty tough. I'm really glad that didn't get violent though." I replied.

"Thanks for stopping me by the way, I was seriously about to kick his butt." She said.

I smiled and chuckled.

"No prob, I couldn't just let you go ruin your royal reputation like that now could I?" I said.

Serena smiled.

"Yeah, that probably wouldn't look to good on my resume." Serena said.

We both laughed. Then suddenly, we heard the bell ring.

"Oh crap! We gotta go!!!" We said as we rushed to class.