( Dawn's POV )

I walked past Leaf and didn't say anything. I was still mad at her. Leaf was being selfish and she didn't get me. May tried to make us work things out, but I wasn't in the mood to. Neither was Leaf it seemed. She had stayed away all night and came home in the morning to scream we had to wake up. Misty was happy too, so was May. Two days ago someone died and they were going to pretend none of that happened.

"Dawn,"Leaf said. I didn't look her in the eyes and I didn't say anything either. "Gary is in the hospital."

"I'll be sure to check on him, then."I said, still not looking Leaf in the eyes.

"Someone tried to kill me, but made a wrong shot."Leaf said.

"And how do you know the gunshot wasn't meant for Gary."I said as I finally turned around and faced Leaf. Her eyes were looking sad, but I didn't care. She should've acted like a friend.

"Because there was another shot, hitting a tree. And another with an injection that hit me. There were no other shots." I started getting worried, though I tried not to show it.

"I'm sorry to hear that."I said as cold as possible. The only thing that didn't make me hug Leaf and say that I was sorry, was Barry. Gary was alive, just hurt. Leaf was, again, unharmed and I was left shattered. Life was so unfair.

"Don't you care at least a little bit!"Leaf yelled and was at the point of crying.

"I care."I then said. "You just need to win back my trust."

"Trust?"she asked. "I was helping you Dawn! I tried to make you feel better. And it's not like your life is so much worse than mine! You say that I got out unharmed of a kidnap, you weren't even kidnapped! And to be honest. Being alive sucks! But I try to live my life, even if it's a piece of shit. And someday things will get better. That counts for you too."

"You're friend didn't die."

"Wrong,"Leaf said. "My friend is still dying. And I try to help her, but she won't take my help."

"Who?"

"I'm talking about you!"Leaf yelled. Misty came towards us and tried to calm Leaf down. May stepped towards me and glared at me.

"What?"I said.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is for Leaf?"

"No clue."

May just scoffed and turned around. Was she mad at me? For what? Maybe I was too hard on Leaf and maybe I did stop believing. But I felt like I was in a bottomless pit and there was no way of getting out. I could only fall faster.

I walked to the canteen, alone. I regretted being so cold to Leaf. I didn't have the right to be mad at her. She was right, she was kidnapped. I should be happy she came out unharmed. And I was. I was being angry at her for nothing! Leaf was just helping me. These times I would step to Kenny and ask him if he could help me.

( Dawn's memory )

"Dawn what's wrong?"Kenny asked as he let me in. My eyes were filled with tears and there was a sharp pain in my knee. He laid his hand on my shoulder. "Dawn, you can trust me."

"I know."I softly said. "It's just... Ursula beat me." Kenny looked annoyed at me.

"Are you crying for something like that?"

"I seriously thought I would win!"I said as I stood up, but kneeled down again. My knee hurted too much. Kenny now kneeled too.

"What's with your knee?"he asked. He rolled up my trouser leg. The blood was still not dried up. Kenny stood up and took out a bandage.

"It's not that bad."

"What happened?"he asked as he did the bandage around my knee.

"Remember when I caught a Leafeon."

"Nope."Kenny answered. I glared at him. He was done with the bandage and rolled my trouser leg back.

"Haha. Well, anyways, it turned out not to like me so much." Kenny chuckled. "It's not funny."

"What's not funny?"someone said and the door of Kenny's room opened.

"BARRY!!"Kenny and I yelled in unison. Kenny ran up to him and tried to close the door, but Barry got inside. I laughed.

"You're going back to your own room!"Kenny yelled and he chased Barry. But Barry was faster than Kenny. He winked at me as he ran by and I gave him a smile.

"Barry you're an idiot."I said.

"A cute idiot I hope."he said and I chuckled.

"Barry are you flirting with me right now?"

He just smirked at me and then ran out of the room with a screaming Kenny close behind him. 'Thank you Barry.'I thought.

( End of Dawn's memories )

Barry. He would always come in on the most annoying moments, but he could always make me laugh. I took some food and sat on a table on my own. Misty wasn't mad at me so she sat with me, but Leaf and May didn't. I was a mess. They had never knew what Barry really was for me. He was so much more than just a friend. And he died.

"I have a test today what about you?"Misty asked.

"French."I said, but I wasn't really focused at the conversation. My eyes went to the table were Barry usually sat. The table was empty. I felt a tear rolling over my cheek. Only one. I didn't let myself cry any more.

"You okay?"Misty asked. She stopped eating and looked worried at me.

"I'm just... no. I'm not okay."I answered. "But that will be temporarily. Leaf is right, I need to go live now. It just feels like life just ended."

"Even the death of somebody else isn't your funeral."Misty said half smiling. "And Barry's funeral is on Sunday in the afternoon. You are coming, right?"

I nodded. "Of course."

Immediately after breakfast I went to the gardens. I had only thirty minutes to do whatever I wanted to and then school started again. Goodbye hard life, hello extremely difficult life. I saw Paul training with his Ninjask. I stepped to him and decided if I would recover I needed to talk again.

"Hey,"I said. Paul turned around showing his angry face. "I wanted to thank you for saving me. Twice." Paul didn't show me any emotion. "I don't like owing people. Can I do something in return?" Paul kept silent and was ready to turn around. "Can I do something in return?"

"No."he said.

"There has to be something I can do?"I said. I needed to get my mind off of Barry and helping someone with chores was the perfect way.

"There is one thing, but I can't ask that from you?"Paul said. Was he trying to make me curious? If he was than it worked.

"What is it?"I asked.

Then Paul leaned forward to me and kissed me. I was a little shocked, but didn't do anything. Then Paul leaned back and walked casually away. I wanted to say something, but I was too shocked. And surprisingly happy. My mind was only at that kiss, but that wasn't immediately good.

( time skip )

The teacher laid down the test for me, while I was with my mind far away from here. I picked up my test.

1. Qu'est-ce que c'est?

I looked at it. I had completely forgotten what this meant. And last year I almost failed French. I took my pencil and bit my lip. Than I let myself think about that kiss and what it meant.

'Does he like me? I hope! What are you thinking, of course he likes you! Otherwise he wouldn't kiss you, right? Right? But what if he decided he didn't like me after all. What if... oh, the test!' I quickly wrote down: What's that? And went to the next question.

2. Je t'aime.

'Maybe he did like me. Maybe... oh French, right. Je t'aime. That was... I love you. If he did love me he would've said it, so it's possible that... Dawn! You need to focus otherwise you'll fail this test. Do you want to be tutored? Je t'aime. That's I love you. Next question!'

3. Elle manque de courage.

'Courage is courage, obviously. Elle was she. She didn't have any courage. It's like they're talking about me. Do I have the courage to step to Paul and say that I love him? Probably not. He's so dreamy... oh Arceus, Dawn! French! She lacks courage. Up to four. Wait, how late is it? Waah! I've taken five minutes for these three! Quick, Dawn!'

4. De mort.

'Ah, a word. That should be easy. This one was... what was this one again?! Oh right! Dead. Oh Arceus, Barry! I had completely forgotten about him. And I said Leaf didn't pay any attention to what had happened. Someone needed to kiss me and I forgot he had died just three days ago. Or pay any attention to my French test for that matter. Dawn! Focus! De mort: dead.'

5. Gentleman.

'Easy. Gentleman. Paul was a gentleman, sort of. If he was charming too... Dawn! Quit it! Paul doesn't like you, now start thinking about your test before you think about Paul!'

And this went on for the rest of the hour. Luckily I got a little faster and finished the test just in time. I stood up and gave the paper to our teacher. She looked strictly at me and took my papers without looking away from my eyes. I bit my lip and walked back to my seat. I wasn't even the last one to return my test!

( May's POV )

I was happy, somehow. It wasn't like I had spoken Drew after that embarrassing moment with him two days ago. Brianna had annoyed me ever since, but I didn't really care. What I did care about was Dawn's current attitude. Leaf and Dawn had their moments, yeah. But it was never this bad. It always lasted a few hours and then they hugged and apologized. This was the longest fight they ever had. So I walked up to Dawn.

"Dawn,"I said a little soft. "Can we talk." Dawn nodded and gave Kenny a sign she needed to go. He gave her a small smile and nodded. I realized these days should be very dark for him. Kenny had lost his best friend he knew already for six years. I gave him a weak smile to show my appreciation.

When we were alone Dawn began with the talking, "I'm sorry about Leaf. I shouldn't have been that mean to her. I was just a little depressed."

"A little?"I asked. I smirked at her and Dawn chuckled a bit.

"Okay I was really depressed."

"What changed?"I asked. Dawn immediately turned red and just shook her head. "Oh..."

"What?"she asked blushing furiously. It was good to see her alive again. These past days were especially hard for her and I was afraid these wounds would never heal. Apparently I was wrong. Like usual. But this was one of the things I hoped to be wrong about.

"Let me guess."I said tapping on my chin. "Kenny? Or maybe even... Paul?" She now was as red as a tomato. I chuckled. "So it's Paul that made you realize you were alive."

"Why would you think that?"Dawn said with an incredibly high voice. I couldn't stop chuckling. Dawn glared at me, still red. I couldn't say anything back, because someone came behind us. Our teacher looked strictly at us.

"Shouldn't you be inside the classroom."she said her eyes straight at us.

"We were just..."I started, but realized there was no good excuse.

"You were just?"the teacher said. I hated math just because she always looked at me like that. Not even because I was bad at maths. Actually I had fine grades for it, but she had something against me or something. And she always picked me out of everyone! And when you need to say something and everyone looks at you, you just kind of stop. You don't know anything anymore. Even though you perfectly know the answer! I hated her!

"We had a fight this morning. And we had to talk."Dawn explained. The teacher narrowed her eyes, but walked through the door followed by the both of us. Phew!

'Thank you.'I mouthed to Dawn. She just winked at me and we sat next to each other. Kenny was behind Dawn and tapped on her shoulder.

"What happened?"he whispered.

"She asked what we were doing."Dawn whispered. "We were almost dead." Then she turned around and gulped. The word dead had a whole new meaning, even though it meant the same. It was used a different way. I let my hand rest on her shoulder and Dawn gave me a weak smile. I never asked her why Barry's dead was so bad to her. I knew Barry was her friend, but she never even mentioned his name before.

The teacher started with her lesson about angles.

"Imagine this line has an angle of 45 degrees. Is that an acute or an obtuse angle?"

Sky's hand got up. The teacher gave her a slight nod. "An acute angle."Sky answered. The teacher nodded and wrote it on the board.

"And Sky can you tell me what the line is that divides the angle in two equal angles."

"The bisector." The teacher gave Sky again a nod and wrote it down.

"Well done Sky."she said. "May can you tell me then what an altitude is?"

I froze. Why me? Why always me?! "Ehm... that was the line, that's perpendicular on an angle."I said a little nervous. The teacher gave me a strict look, but nodded.

"Good. And how do you call these angles that are ... to each other?"

I gulped. "They're parallel to each other."I said.

"You got that right, Maple."she said. When she moved on to the next student I was furious. How could she! She just hated me! And I hated her. I was the rest of the lesson angry, but silent. If there was one thing I hated, it was teachers who always chose you out of everyone. Sure, it happens with every class. But with maths she always picked me out.

I was still looking angry as I sat with Dawn at lunch. Misty sat with us and Leaf was checking on Gary. Probably because of Dawn.

"May, why are you angry?"Misty asked to me with a smile.

"I hate Miss Ivy."I answered. Misty chuckled.

"Who doesn't?"Dawn said.

"Sky."I said. But I smiled too. Luckily my friends weren't Miss Ivy's. Then Drew, Paul and Ash came in and Dawn turned silent blushing furiously. Her eyes focused on Paul. Paul didn't show any change of emotion when he saw Dawn. But he did look at her. I saw how Ash gave Misty a bright smile and she gave him one. Was I the only one that didn't made any move yet? I looked at Drew who had his hands in his pockets and stared at the ground, while walking to a table. I turned my attention to Ash.

"How's Gary?"I asked. Ash smiled and sat next to me.

"He's doing better. His arm is currently taken care of, but they say that he soon can go to school again. He only can't write."

"What do you mean?"I asked. "He was shot in his left arm right?"

"Gary is left handed."

"Really?"I asked, while frowning. "Wow, never noticed."

"But that's great news!"Misty said happily. "That means the bullet is out of his arm."

Ash nodded and took Dawn's sandwich. "Hey that's my sandwich!"she said.

"Sorry, I'll pay you back, someday."Ash answered when he was done.

"Oh you."Dawn said annoyed. Ash just grinned.

"So how are you three doing?"he said. A specific question to Dawn. Dawn went quiet, but Misty and I started talking about the test we had to make next hour. Ash noticed Dawn's silence.

"What about you?"

"I ruined my French test."Dawn said. "But I guess I'm healing." Ash gave her a smile to cheer her up. Misty and I looked at each other with a meaningful look.

"Hey Dawn. There's still some time, wanna come to see Gary?"Misty asked and I just nodded. Dawn smiled.

"Yes, that would be nice."

"Cool! I'm coming with you!"Ash said and he picked his bag up. Misty rolled her eyes but also stood up. I also stood up and gave Dawn a smile. She nodded and I saw happiness in her eyes. Time had healed her.

( Dawn's POV )

I told them I would come in a second and waited until they were gone. I walked up to Paul who was sitting with Drew.

"Hey,"I said. This was so awkward. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" Paul nodded, without changing his facial expression. He walked with me to the hall. "Look, what happened. I was just..."

"I'm sorry."Paul said.

"Wait, what?"I said. "No, no! Don't be! I liked it!" I wanted to kill myself. Why was I so stupid?

"I didn't mean to do that."Paul said. My heart went a thousand times faster. "You should just forget about it."

"I can't."I said. "I can't think about anything else. Do you..."

"Let it go, Dawn."Paul said and I wanted to die.

"You don't."I said nodding slowly. "Thanks for... the honesty." I ran away trying to stop the tears that were rolling over my cheeks. I stood before the door of the hospital. I had ten minutes and I couldn't stop crying. I came inside, still crying.

"Dawn, what's..."May began, but I shushed her.

"Hey."I said to Gary. Leaf stared angrily at me. "You okay?"

Gary looked annoyed at me. "Are you?" I nodded though it wasn't very convincing since I still cried. And smiling seemed impossible right now. "I'm not stupid Dawn."

"It's nothing."I said and I tried a smile. It failed, but I at least tried.

( time skip )

It was almost bed time. I was tired, because my head had worked twice as hard today. Thinking about various things. Gary, Paul, Barry and school. I wasn't really sleepy though. My mind was tired, but my body wasn't. May, Misty and Leaf had decided to check on Gary again. I didn't, because Leaf and I hadn't really talked yet.

I heard someone knock on the door. I walked to the door and opened. Paul was standing in the door. After crying I had turned angry, but seeing him made me want to cry again.

"What do you want?"I said sad.

"You didn't let me finish."he said. I looked up surprised. "Look, Dawn..."

"Stop, right there."I said. "I just wanted to say that I love you. If you love me or not, I will always..." Paul didn't let me finish my sentence and kissed me. I was surprised, but kissed back.

( Paul's POV )

I woke up, but not in my own room. Dawn's head lay on my chest and I honestly couldn't remember where my shirt was. I could only know I was happy. Dawn cuddling me in her sleep, waking up a little later. And I actually smiled.

"Dawn! May! If you don't wake up NOW, I'll eat the both of you alive!"Leaf screamed. I chuckled and softly whispered Dawn she had to wake up. She opened her eyes in a sweet way.

"You smile."she said. "That's new."

"Only when I'm with you."I answered. Dawn gave me a kiss, a little too long. Then she stood up and started getting ready. I picked up my shirt I found laying on the ground. Dawn brushed her hair very long, even though it was already beautiful. I liked looking how she got ready for school. Though it took her incredibly long.

"Dawn!"I heard Leaf scream. "You've got ten minutes and otherwise May will come inside!" Dawn tried to go faster, but wasn't fast enough. 

"I'm coming in!"May yelled.

"One minute!"Dawn yelled back. She finished her makeup and walked up to me. She kissed me. I almost returned to dreamland when I realized I was in Dawn's huge closet. "Hide here."Dawn whispered. Then she gave me one last quick kiss and ran outside the closest. She closed the closet, but I could here May opening the door.

"Are you coming or what?"May asked.

"I'm here."Dawn said panting.

"Good."May said. "What took you so long?"

"Well, you know me."Dawn said with a nervous tone. "I wanted today would be perfect." I smiled at those words. I could only smile when I was with her. No one else could make me smile. She was special. And that's why we weren't meant to be. 'I can't make you happy Dawn, please understand.'I thought and my smile faded. 'I'm sorry.'

________________________________________________________________________________

So my chapters are getting quite long. Sorry. But how farther I'm with the book how more I can write. Maybe you like long chapters, than here's a long chapter. But sorry if it's too long. I would like to thank you for reading and please vote or comment.

                            -LapisLazulli2-