A majority (92%) of this chapter is dialogue. :3

Ash's POV

"Gary! What the hell!!" I shouted, pinning him against the wall of the bus.

"You can't hide it anymore, Ashy-boy!" He teased in a singsong tone, trying to struggle out of my hold, "You have to tell her how you feel!"

"No!" I growled, tighting my grip on his shirt, "I'm not going to tell her!"

"WHY." Gary grunted, almost succeding in loosening my grip on him, "NOT?"

"Because! She's my best friend, and nothing more!" I shouted, conpletely fed up with him at this point.

"Well, look! There's your 'best friend' now!" Gary said, pushing my arms off of him, "Perfect timing!"

"No! Bad timing!" I yelled at him, putting a hand over his mouth, preventing him from saying anything.

"SRUMPHNR!" He tried saying through my hands, his voice only muffling.

''Nononono, PLEASE, no!" I thought to myself, watching Serena walk towards us from the front of the bus.

I immediately panicked as soon as Serena turned her head at Gary and I. If she even said a single word to me, Gary was bound to say something about my crush on her...

"Uh, Gary? How you doing?" I asked him, with my hand still on his mouth, trying to make it seem like I didn't notice Serena.

"*gasp*" He inhaled through his mouth after removing my hand, "Well, minus me being pinned on the wall, and your hand that was on my mouth, I'm doing just fine and dandy!"

"Yeah, sorry about that." I apologized, backing away from him and sitting back down properly in my seat.

"Well, I missed my chance to tell her." Gary sighed, fixing the wrinkles on his t-shirt.

"Oh, well." I happily said, thankful that Serena still doesn't know anything.

"Seriously though, why don't you want her to know that you like her?" Gary asked, actually being sincere for the first time this morning.

"Because." I sighed, slouching in my seat and staring out the window, "I just don't."

"Well, that's stupid." Gary tried nicely insulting me, ultimately failing, "You should tell her how you feel."

"I'm not going to." I insisted, hoping he would take no for an answer.

"Your call." He finally gave up, "But don't blame me when someone steals her away from you."

"Nobody's going to steal her away from me." I chuckled, amused at Gary's prediction, "Who does stuff like that anyway?"

"Whatever. But if you need help, which I'm sure you will," Gary started, then leaning in towards me, a little too close, "Love Lord Gary is always available, 7 days a week."

"Uh, thanks." I sarcastically thanked him, shoving his face out of my personal space.

"No problem. Just don't forget my rates." He added quickly, trying not to make me hear it.

"Your rates..?" I repeated, astonished that he was trying to make a profit out of all of this.

"Y'know, like about $1 per minute." He nonchalantly said, "It's only one dollar, so it's a good deal."

"Yeah. Per minute." I clarified, rolling my eyes at his stupid proposal.

"Ok, um, how about 1 cent per second?" He tried again, his eyes and face expression confident I can't say no to that.

"Gary, I'm not paying you anything." I shut him down, "And how can you be a love lord if you are still asking advice from me?"

"I'm wasn't asking advice from you. I was taking in suggestions." He corrected me smugly.

"Riiiiiight." I said, punching him hard in the shoulder.

"Ow!" He yelled, rubbing his shoulder, in hopes of soothing the pain.

"Now then, if I do ask for advice, it won't be from you." I kindly told him, or rather tried to.

"Fine." Gary sighed, "I'll just find another guy to rip off."

Now, after that stupid conversation with Gary, I had almost forgotten that we were headed to school. Looking out the window to the right of me, the school could be seen right in front of me.

"Come on, Gary." I said to him, standing up from my seat to let him slide out.

"Oh my. Such a gentleman." Gary teased, acting feminine all of a sudden.

"Shut up." I plainly said, not having the energy to punch him again.

"Whatever." He sighed, still not getting up from where he was sitting.

"Uh, why aren't you getting up?" I asked him, my foot tapping in impatience.

"I'm not in your first period, am I?" He scoffed, slouching even further in his seat than he already was.

"Oh, right." I nervously said, embarrassed that I was waiting for him.

"But, you might want to let them pass." Gary said, his eyes scrolling over to something behind me.

"Who?" I asked him, turning around to where his eyes were focused at.

Well, Serena, Dawn, and May were all just standing there, their arms crossed across their bodies. Serena's Eevee and Fennekin didn't seem too happy with me blocking their path, either..

"Ash, are you going to move?" May asked, her tone not pleasant.

"Uh, yeah." I said to her, walking towards the front of the bus, "See you later, Gary."

It felt a little awkward knowing that the girls were pretty much breathing down my neck from behind me. Regardless, I jumped off the bus and started jogging to the school doors.

"Ash!" Serena called, jogging after me, "Wait up!"

The thought just popped up in my mind that Serena and I were in the same class for first period. I had totally forgotten about that...

"Hey, Serena!" I greeted her, letting her catch up beside me.

"Hi, Ash!" She greeted back, adjusting her shifted backpack affer she stopped running.

"And hello, Fennekin and Eevee!" I greeted her Pokémon, petting the both of them on the head.

"So, you didn't bring Pikachu today?" She asked, noticing that Pikachu wasn't on my shoulder.

"Yeah. He wouldn't wake up when I asked him to." I explained to her, a little embarrassed that a small mouse made me listen to him.

"Well, same story with Pancham." She giggled sweetly.

"Those two just love their sleep." I laughed along with her.

"I know!" She laughed a little longer, before calming down, "But seriously, let's get going. We don't want to be late."

"Alright, fine. Let's go." I agreed, walking beside her into the school.

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Calem's POV

"You have my money?" The blonde boy asked, holding his hand out.

"I'm only going to give you a portion of it." I grunted, placing a $20 bill and a $5 bill in his hand.

"$25? That's it?" He said in shock, regardless, pocketing the money.

"I'll give you the rest when I get what I want." I sneered at him for questioning my plans.

"Fine, but we need to speed up this process." The boy sighed, "Otherwise, this is going to take forever."

"What else can we do?" I asked, curious if he had a better idea.

"Well, I have a method of making sure that her chances of saying yes increases significantly." He chuckled, pushing his glasses up higher on his nose.

"Oh, really now?" I smirked, now highly intrigued, "Well, come on. What's the plan?"

"I'll tell you on the way to first period." He said, walking to the front entrance, "But, there isn't much preparation needed, so we can do this after school."

"Perfect!" I said, patting him on the back, "I knew I picked the right guy for this job!"

"Thank me later with the money." He said, not reacting much to me patting him on the back.

"Alright, so what do we have to do first?" I asked, anxious to know his master plan.

"We have to spread the word to as many people as we can in the school."