I mean, hey. I found this in my drafts, which I, for some reason, did not actually publish, so might as well do it now.

Serena's POV

"Hi there, Ash!" I greeted him, trying to sound genuinely confident and happy to see him.

"Serena!" Ash exclaimed, recollecting himself after crashing into me, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." I said, observing that he seemed a bit anxious, "Uh, you seem kind of panicky.."

"Yeah. I was actually going to go.. Uh.." He paused, "Outside somewhere."

"Really?" I frowned, my confidence dropping rapidly, "I actually, um, wanted to talk to you about something right now.."

"Now?" Ash whined, seeming like he wanted to escape the conversation.

Ok. I sort of expected to have to do this, but I didn't think about it too much. I've known Ash long enough to learn how to get him to give in to anything.

"Pleaaaaaase?" I pouted, mustering up the best puppy-dog eyes I could muster.

Ash tried his best to resist and say no to me, but he failed after about five seconds. It really is cute to see him try and persist to resist, though.

As he let me inside, he hung up his jacket on the rack a few feet away from the front door and walked into the living room.

Ash sat down on the couch and patted down on the other side, signaling for me to sit there. I noticed that the TV was still on, but the volume was hardly audible so that wouldn't be much of a bother.

"Ok. So what do you want to talk about?" He started, sounding slightly sarcastic, but I didn't think much of it.

"Oh. Uh, It's about what happened earlier today.." I slowly started the topic, hoping he would catch on without me actually saying it.

"You too?" He said, reaching his hand into a bowl on the table in front of him and grabbing the last two chips in there.

"What do you mean, 'Me too'?" I asked.

"May was here just a few minutes ago." He said, crunching and swallowing the chips in his mouth, "She wanted to talk about the same thing."

"Oh." I squeaked, concealing my irritation that built up because of May getting here before me, "What did she say?"

"She just told me that you were coming over." He answered, keeping the majority of his attention on the silent TV.

"That's it?" I asked, surprised that May didn't tell Ash anything more.

"Ya." Ash replied, after a gulp.

"Well that's good, I suppose." I started saying, secretly wishing to end the conversation now while he didn't seem to hate me as much.

I decided to sit down next to Ash on the couch, but it was pretty awkward since nobody wanted to talk. On top of that, I had no idea what on earth he was watching, which made it harder to start a conversation.

"What are you watching there?" I asked him.

"It's called Attack on Titan." He explained to me, "The second season just came out after, like, 4 years."

"4 years?" I almost exclaimed. After that amount of time, I probably would've given up on the show entirely.

"Yes. 4 years. But it's worth it." Ash said in a plain tone, which I sensed was his subtle way of telling me to stop talking.

"Ok, look. Can we just talk about what happened?" I insisted, pointing at the TV remote for him to either give it to me or turn it off himself.

"Let's just make this quick." Ash sighed, while he actually paused the recording instead of turning of the TV entirely.

"Thank you." I took a deep breath, preparing my little speech in my head, "So what exactly did you see?"

"I saw a crowd, you, and Calem." He slouched in his seat. "He had something in his hand, and that's all I saw."

"Right." I said, "So why is that making you mad?"

"It just is." He sassily shot back. "Can I not be upset about that?"

"I mean, you can if you want to, but just know that I don't plan on talking to him for a while." I told him. For some reason, that sentence caused him to sit up straight in his seat.

"Are you serious?" Ash questioned me in a more non-sarcastic tone.

"Yeah, I am."

"Alright." Ash said with a small smirk on his face, almost as if he didn't seem as mad anymore. "I just really hate that kid."

"Is that why you were mad? Just because you don't like Calem?" I asked him, suprised that his reason for being upset was as simple of a reason as that.

"Yes. It was." Ash quickly said. "Now can I get back to watching TV?"

"Sure. But only If you'll let me watch with you." I bargained with him, proud of myself for that smooth move.

"Fine, but first let me get more food. I'm still hungry." Ash stood up, patting his stomach twice.

"Ok, that's fair." I said to him as he walked into the kitchen.

I looked at what was on the TV at the moment. Some girl was falling in midair with blood on one side of her face. There was also a small golden glow that looked like it was about to expand, but it was still paused so I didn't know if that was actually the case.

As I was observing the screen, I heard a vibration from right beside me. Ash accidentally left his phone where he was sitting next to me. Now, normally, I would not intentionally snoop and look at anyone's messages, but the vibration had caused me to look to my side anyway. As the screen lit up, I saw a message from somebody without a contact name. It said:

"Meet me at the school tonight, and then we will see who deserves the honor."